IHSURAHC^, 
DEFINITIONS 



-Jifit.,-.^-''^ -^ 



k-»> #N»^ 1 -«4s. 



■--xx-.i ' ' »-^^ sr 



BPicwIuiAiis 




i 




Class _Jdd_;iJi._._ 
Book. ' .lAi 7 t 



Copyright)!^. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



INSURANCE 
DEFINITIONS 

A SERIO-COMIC DICTIONARY 
OF INSURANCE TERMS 

By IRVING WILLIAMS 



Reprinted from 
"Rough Notes" 



Published by The Rough Notes Company, Indianapolis, Indiana, JQ03 



m'^f I? ■^'^*^- 
(ft* /t.M(?l| 

CLASS «. rX^- ^O- 

•7 ^ J' U'O 

J COPY 8. 






Copyrighted by 

The Rough Notes Company 

190J 



INTRODUCTION 



C The author of this volume of definitions has asked me to write an 
introductory note, and in doing this I am afforded much pleasure, inas- 
much as he and the contemporary insurance press have so cleverly per- 
formed my task that I am left little more to say than, '* here is the writer 
and here is the book." I must say, however, that " Insurance Definitions" 
were evolved after an effort on my part to encourage Mr. Williams to write 
for Rough Notes and to "blaze" his way through the forest of insur- 
ance literature. But so doubtful was he of his own abilities that I felt 
compelled to bribe him by the offer of a certain sum for every article of his 
published in Rough Notes that should be copied by any other con- 
temporary journal or newspaper. That I was rash in making the offer 
was soon made apparent by way of quick recognition of their merit by the 
insurance press both in this country, Great Britain, and by many daily 
and weekly newspapers. This led to an effort to get even with Mr. 
Williams by reprinting his Definitions in book form, upon a basis satis- 
factory to him ; and, should its sales correspond with the measure of 
kindness shown by contemporaries, he will be well repaid for the pains he 
has taken in the study of dry insurance terms which he has so embellished 
with humorous suggestions and so pointed with bright witticisms that they 
can not easily be forgotten. Believing that a book of insurance definitions 
is needed, especially by those not familiar with insurance terms and that 
" Insurance Definitions " will be enjoyed by all classes of underwriters, I 
heartily commend Mr. Williams and his book to the public. 

H. C. MARTIN, 

Editor of Rough Notes. 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



A ban ' don ment, n. [L. ab and 'ban6.um.'\ 1. The surrender 
of damaged property to the insurer by the insured. 2. A term 
more common in marine underwriting parlance than in fire un- 
derwriting, but still occasionally encountered in the latter. 3. 
The practice of abandonment eliminates much of the annoyance 
common to adjusting. The insurer takes its chances with the sal- 
vage. 

Ac cu mu la-'tion, ac kiu miu la' shun, n. [L. cumulous.'] 1. 
The surplus or balance, with interest increments, which remains 
of net premium payments on a policy after the expense and cost 
of carrj-ing said policy have been satisfied. That sounds rather 
hazy, to tell the truth, and unless the investigator knew all about 
accumulations to begin with he would be up in the air, to use a 
classical expression, after reading it. To back out and get an- 
other start we would suggest that the "accumulation" on a policy 
is that amount of its value which is in excess of the actual co«t 
of its board and keep up to the date of inquiry, including inter- 
est on said excess. That is to say: What is left of the premiums 
paid in, after the running expenses have been paid out. [To look 
at the word no one would imagine it would be so hard to define. 
In fact, it defines itself better than can be done with a multitude 
of words.] 2. Anyway an accumulation, as respecting an old- 
line life insurance policy, is a desirable decoration. The accumu- 
lations common to assessment policies are of a negative type as 
to virtue and a positive type as to disappointment. While an 
old-line policy is out accumulating a little surplus the assessment 
policy accumulates an extra assessment without half trying, etc. 
3. The stuff that dividends are made of. 4. The barometrical in- 

I. D.-l. —1 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



dication of the status of the mortality experience, managerial 
economy, the rate of interest and the complexion of the com- 
pany's invested securities. [Any other points which may have 
been omitted will he found in the errata volume, companion to 
tthis work.] 

See Dividend and the nearest life insurance agent. 



A cet ' y lene, a set' i lene, n. [Choctaw ahsahtawaha, fire 
water.] 1. Chem. — A gaseous compound of carbon and hydrogen, 
two atoms to each, or, technically, two pair. It is colorless tp 
the eye, but has a deep green smell easily detectible in the dark. 
It is commonly generated by bringing water in contact with cal- 
cium carbide. The latter is doubtless a Kentucky product, being 
greatly avers© to water, behaving violently in its presence. 2. 
Acetylene is of interest to fire underwriters because of its growing 
popularity as an illuminant and means of destruction. It gives a 
clear white light by which even an illiterate man can readily dis- 
cern the printed page and an uncultured man can catch an occa- 
sional scintillation from the lines of Browning, and as a means of 
destruction it is doing very nicely considering its youth and inex- 
perience. 3. Underwriters are attempting to regulate the style of 
capsule in which this essence of earthquake and volcanic eruption 
shall be confined and devices which have run the gauntlet of their 
criticism are kn,own as "approved." 4. Special care also has to be 
exercised to prevent too much calcium carbide from congregating 
in one place. Water adds fuel in case of such a fire, decreases the 
possible salvage and properly applied may effect a sudden and 
general distribution of said salvage over the world at large. 



Actu-'ary, akt' yu ary, n. [L. actuarius, one who keeps ac- 
counts.] 1. A mathematical acrobat. 2. The maker of the rate- 
tables and of all calculations touching the future mathematical 
expectations of his company. 3. Although an actuary becomes 
very familiar with complicated and abstruse mathematical propo- 
sitions, the little problems of domestic life are as puzzling to him 
as to any other man. He can mount one side of a column of 
twelve figures as long as a piece of paper and come down the 
other with as much grace and ease as the ordinary man makes 

— 2 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



use of an elevator; but when it comes to figuring the distance 
from the front door at 1:00 a. m. to his bedroom at 1:15 a. m. he 
makes as much noise as a policy clerk. The tables of mortality, 
with their mountains of figures and their hieroglyphics and sym- 
bols, have no terror for him, but the breakfast table is ap- 
proached, the morning after a night's research for ratios, with 
very human fear and trembling. 4. The actuary may be called 
the pilot of an insurance company. He lays out the course to be 
sailed. With precision he places on the chart the rocks which, 
through indiscretion, the management will discover. He calcu- 
lates to a nicety just when each cargo — each separate class of 
risks — will arrive at that port which knows no outgoing craft, 
and shows, beyond question, just what the shrinkage will be. He 
might also be likened to a train dispatcher, but it is not necessary. 
See Table of Rates, etc. 

Ad di ' tion al, ad dish un al, a. [Math, addition.] 1. Added 
to; increased. 2. That which affects the original risk or contract 
by augmenting certain features. It may be in the way of addi- 
tional insurance, additional hazard, additional charges and the 
like. 

Compare Other Insurance. 

Ad |a ' cent, a. [L. adjacens.'] 1. Lying near or close to; in 
juxtaposition; contiguous. 2. Not necessarily touching or ad- 
joining. One building may be adjacent t,o another and still leave 
enough room for a clear space clause and a well-developed fam- 
ily scrap to intervene. Adjacent structures, however, are gener- 
ally near enough to partake of the nature of exposures. 3. A 
sufiQcient number of adjacencies taken in the aggregate make a 
neighborhood. Adjacencies are an important factor in home life. 
This will be .observed quite emphatically where the atmosphere 
of said life is tainted with the aroma of an adjacent glue factory 
or the night hours are punctuated by the ten strikes and spares of 
an adjacent bowling alley. For the significance of adjacencies as 
affecting fire underwriting kindly and quietly refer to "exposure." 

Compare Adjoining, Communicating. 

Adjoin ' ing, a. [L. adjingo, to unite; It. aggiungere; Sp. 
ajuntar; Fr. adjoindre (which graphically illustrates the uni- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



versality of language).] 1. Toucliing. 2. An absence of clear 
space. 3. Contiguous to. 4. The term "adjoining" is more re- 
strictive, more exclusive, than "adjacent." [Consult same.] 5. 
Poetically speaking, two buildings are spoken of as adjoining 
when a heart to heart relationship exists between them. Under- 
writers regard such an intimacy with distrust and if there is no 
fire wall between the two ,or there are more than the regulation 
openings they are treated as one building and penalized accord- 
ingly in the rate. This is but right since many fireproof build- 
ings have been damaged or destroyed by fires in adjoining fire- 
traps. 

Ad just^, V. t. 1. To ascertain the amount of loss sustained 
under an insurance policy in the event of the occurrence of the 
contingency or calamity insured against, and to determine the 
amount payable therefor. 

Ad just ' er, n. [Sp. adjustar.'] 1. An insurance employe 
whose employers are best pleased when he is idle. 2. One who es- 
timates the loss caused by a fire. 3. An adjuster, to be success- 
ful, must be courteous, diplomatic, shrewd, an expert jollier, of 
an equable temper, slow to anger, a Sherlock Holmes, up-to-date, 
good-looking, with honest blue eyes and a glad hand, a good 
memory, good cigars, business judgment, the embodiment of vir- 
tue and with a working knowledge of all evil. He must under- 
stand bookkeeping, banking, law and human nature. He must 
be a mind reader, a hypnotist and an athlete. He must have a 
knowledge of tongues like a Castle Garden interpreter and be as 
familiar with the dead languages as a college professor and knoW 
how to figure his expense account like a thirty-third degree 
wholesale drummer. He must be acquainted with machinery of 
all types and materials of all kinds and he must know the prices 
of everything from a shoe-string to a sky-scraper. He must have 
a keen sense of smell, clear eyesight, etc., etc. 

"An insurance adjuster is one who stands between the assured and imme* 
diate wealth."— Bill Nye. 

Admit'^ted As ^ sets, n. 1. Those assets which measure up 
to the requirements of an insurance department, represent money 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



and of which there can be no doubt. Real estate, cash, stocks, 
bonds, gilt-edged mortgages, outstanding premiums and other 
valid accounts come under this head. Companies are generally 
willing to admit the possession of such desirable attributes — in 
fact, it is sometimes necessary to check an impulsive institution 
which, in its enthusiasm, is willing to admit more than it pos- 
sesses. The checking process is accomplished by means of an ex- 
amination by some State insurance department. If it is discov- 
ered that an ebullition of spirits has resulted in a violation of bet- 
ter judgment and the facts it becomes quite embarrassing for the 
company. Companies have been known to be so chagrined by an 
exposure of this kind that they have ceased business, retired to 
some secluded spot and shuffled off their mortal coil. The heart- 
less mind, not touched with the pathos of the tragedy, might be 
inclined to liken this to a "raw deal." 

Remember the Traders, N. Y., et al. 

See Assets, Non-Admitted Assets. 



Ad vance ', v. t. [It. avvanzare.l 1. To boost. 2. To elevate. 
3. To raise. 4. To increase, as "to advance rates." 5. In fire un- 
derwriting the gravity of competition is continually at work on 
rates, pulling them down. The lads who have the job of holding 
them up against this force above the profit line gradually get 
weary and rates are allowed to sag until suddenly the stock- 
holders discover that something is wrong and they raise Cain. 
Under this stimulation the rate hplders boost them up again as 
high as they can reach. But if the stockholders raised Cain when 
the rates got too low it is not a circumstance to what the policy- 
holders raise when they note the change. And thus it goes, the 
raising and declining, at regular intervals; which explains why 
the business of underwriting is viewed as a flowery bed of ease. 
When you wish to imagine something real cheerful shut one eye 
and think pt the fire underwriter holding a fifty-pound rate up 
against a competition gravity of 500 pounds to the square inch, 
and, while thus pleasantly occupied, observe him being patted 
on the back by the stockholder and smashed in the face by the 
policyholder, or vice versa. No wonder you envy him. 6. In life 
insurance, rate fluctuations are less marked. Advances in "old 
line" companies come sl.owly but certainly year by year, with re- 

— 5— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



ductions in interest rates and the reduced earning power of 
money. In assessment insurance advances in rates come as cer- 
tainly but more rapidly as the Nemesis of mortality overtakes the 
concern and lays bare the fallacy of "pocket reserve" and "cheap 
insurance" schemes. 7. To prepay, premiums. 
Syn. Increase. 

Ad ^ vance, n. 1. Increase. 2. A periodic remedy applied to 
the business of fire underwriting which is chronically subject to 
intermittent exuberance and depression. 3. The advance cure is 
applied when the business is enjoying one of its sinking spells 
by a sub-cutaneous injection of common-sense lymph into the 
rate system, under the exhilerating influence of which, new life is 
infused into the organism and it puts up a good imitation of 
vitality and change of heart until the intoxication of the advance 
wears off and a relapse into its old state of inertia necessitates 
another application. 

Ad ' ver tise, ad' ver tize, v. t. [L. adverto, to turn to.] 1. 
To call public attention to one's virtues or to another's faults. 2.' 
To blow one's own horn. 3. A common practice among insurance 
companies for stimulating the growth of business. Advertising is 
either general or specific — general, when it is scattered promiscu- 
ously over the field by means of doses done up in newspapers, 
magazines, etc. ; specific, when placed at the root of the individual 
prospect in the shape of testimonials, sample policies, blotters, 
calendars, cigars, candy for the kids, etc. 4. An advertisement to 
be effective should partake of the nature of a Jack-in-the-box. As 
soon as the page on which it appears is opened it should fly up in 
a friendly sort of way and rivet the attention of the reader. With 
all its impulsiveness, however, it must not be offensive and cause 
the reader to feel as if he had had his ear stepped upon by a man 
with hobnail boots. It must leave him with a smile upon his face 
or a comfortable wrinkle in his brain for future reference. Such 
advertisements are not common enough to cause one to refrain 
from looking through the pages of a magazine for fear his atten- 
tion might become too perforated to hold water. 4. The striking 
pharacteristic of insurance advertisements is their native modesty. 
Figuratively speaking, one sees the shy little multi-millionaire 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



company standing first on one foot and then on the other, chew- 
ing the corner of its apron and apologizing for such startling in- 
creases in assets, surplus, insurance in force and other filigree. 5. 
Insurance journalism is a result of insurance advertising, but that 
should not be charged up against it. (Which?) 

A ^ gen cy, 1. Authority to represent another. 2. The place 
in which an agent transacts business. His office. 3. Zool. — The 
species insurance agent of the genus homo usually maintains two 
habitations, one for business and the other for domestic purposes 
— eating, sleeping and the raising of young. The former is known 
as the office or agency. As he is of a social disposition of the 
"misery loves company" type, the insurance agencies in any city 
are generally bunched tpgether on a thoroughfare which is known 
as "the street." An insurance agency can be easily picked out 
because of its weakness for signs, which are fearlessly displayed 
in all styles and enormities known to the sign-maker's art. If 
it were not for insurance agencies and cigar horticulturists, siga 
makers would not all get rich. 

See Office. 

A ' gent, a' jent, n. [L. ago.'\ 1. One who or that which acts 
for another. 2. The representative of an insurance company. 3. 
Technically, the points of contact with ttie public of a piece of in- 
surance mechanism. 4. A bona fide agent should wear about his 
clothes, or over his desk in a gilt frame, a certificate of author- 
ity from his company. The value of such a document does not 
depend so much upon the amount of gold seal, Spencerian flourish 
or quality of sheepskin as upon the authenticity of the signature 
in the lower right-hand corner, no matter whether it can be read 
or not, just so it is genuine. 5. Agents are compensated by means 
of salaries, commissions, bonuses, loving cups, fountain pens, ink- 
stands, pen wipers, paper weights and other utilities. 6. Agents 
are common to all branches of underwriting and occur both male 
and female, though the former predominate — that is in numbers. 

See General Agency, Local Agent, Resident Agent, Special 
Agent, Side Line Agent, etc. 

" Remember that the world will judge 
A company by its agent. 
So never let a personal grudge 
Disturb the mighty pageant." 
—From Insurance Pleasantries. (Page number torn off.) 

— 7- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



A gree '^ meBt, n. [Fr. agrement.'] 1. A state of accord; 
harmony; unison. 2. Something to come to. 3. The closing chap- 
ter of an appraisal. An agreement between appraisers is in the 
nature of a compromise as it is generally the result of concessions 
from the differing parties which are granted by one or the other 
until the two lines of interest coincide. 4. An agreement is the 
average of two degrees of stubbornness representing diverse in- 
terests. 5. Agreements are reached by means of argument, suav- 
ity, jollying, threats, moral suasion, coercion, bulldozing, tact, 
eloquence, sweetening, etc.; altogether the road is a precarious 
and uncertain thoroughfare and in the end may not lead to any 
agreement at all. 

See Appraisal. 

AB lot ' mesit, n. [Contraction of "a lot meant."] 1. A task 
given a life insurance agent. Usually a designated amount of 
insurance that he is expected to write and the percentage of col- 
lections he is expected to maintain during the year. 2. Allotments 
are usually built with an "excelsior" attachment and are designed 
to prevent the agent from being troubled with ennui. An agent 
who hopes to exceed his allotment will not have much time to put 
in at the corner drug store criticising the administration, or 
throwing for cigars. 3. Sometimes the filling of an allotment 
seemeth to be like unto the filling of a sieve with water — the 
which is no cinch. 4. Reasonably often an agent catches up with 
his allotment before the end of the year. This always shows as 
plainly on his face as a vt^art. Such an agent may be identified by 
a placid, self-contented, breathe-easy repose of the features and 
an absence of the wild, inquiring, hunted cast of the eye which 
is noticeable v/hen his allotment still has a handicap of three laps. 
5. The chasing of an allotment is like an Australian pursuit race 
with a time limit. 

An'nex, n. [L. annecto, annexus, to bind up.] 1. A side 
issue imitation of an insurance company, quite popular with fire 
insurance companies in the era of greed for business that marked 
the close of the late lamented century. They are not worn much 
this winter. 2. They were invented to get business — the which 
they did; and the more they got the more the companies directly 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

interested have since been kept busy dodging conflagrations, 
double liabilities. Miss Nemesis and receiverships. 3. When the 
fad struck, annexes were accepted as ornaments and some of the 
ultra-swell companies were not satisfied with just one lone an- 
nex, but, like the fair sex and the bangle bracelet craze which ap- 
peared somewhat contemporaneously, they loaded up. Annexes 
were discarded when it was discovered that their usefulness to a 
company was similar to that of an antequated tin receptacle to a 
brindle canine when attached to the extremity of his caudal ap- 
pendage. Both would tend to convey the impression to the on- 
looker that something was doing, but the ultimate results did not 
justify much self-congratulation on the part of the aforesaid com- 
pany more than on the part of the thereinafter-mentioned canine. 

"As a musical instrument an annex is more prone to produce dirges than 
harvest home melodies."— From Chords aacl Discords. Appendix. 

An'nual State'ment, n. [L. annus and status.'] 1. The 
perennial blossom appearing on the branches of an underwriting 
plant, usually early in January. 2. The number of leaves or petals 
is uncertain, generally greater in older and more vigorous plants. 
3. Normally odorless, but occasionally a specimen is discovered 
which emits an offensive stench. Such cases receive prompt at- 
tention from the State botanist, who either cuts the plant back, 
repots it or digs it up altogether. 4. Large bouquets of these 
blossoms are collected each year at the State insurance conserva- 
tory, where they are inspected, pressed and placed on exhibition. 
5. The entire force in a home office is exceedingly interested in 
nursing the annual statement bud into a well-developed and 
worthy flower. They often cheerfully sit up nights for sev- 
eral weeks at the close of the year for this purpose. When the 
critical hour arrives and the bloom bursts forth in the full ef- 
fulgence of its beauty and fills the office with its radiant glory 
there is no false demonstration of joy. It is the real article. 
The blossom is carried tenderly to the president of the company, 
who, with the board of directors, examines each leaf for possible 
imperfections which may indicate a diseased condition of the 
plant. 6. Sometimes figuratively referred to as a "daisy." 7. 
Most companies also produce a mid-year bloom which is known 
as the semi-annual statement, but it is not as pretentious as the 

— 9— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



January product. These are collected only by the Georgia and In- 
diana State botanists. 

" The nightless days have come again, 
The longest of the year; 
The sleepless annual xtatement days 
We love, again are here." 

From Insurance Nursery Jingles, Page 8740. 



Annu-'ity, n. [L. annus.} 1. In life insurance, a sum payable 
to a person annually, ordinarily for life. 2. An insurance pen- 
sion. 3. An annuity is better than medical science, theoretical or 
practical, external or internal, for producing longevity. A gen- 
erous application of annuity ointment to a supposed subject for 
an early grave has often resulted in an indefinite postponement 
of the last sad rites. The most plausible theory advanced as the- 
reason of this effect of an annuity upon the human organism is 
that the establishment of an annuity relieves the system of the 
wear and tear resulting from worry. The annuitant becomes a 
calm, placid individual, with no anxious thought concerning the 
morrow, for he knows the insurance company will look after 
that for him. His face mellows into benignity; his body relaxes 
from the great strain which was slowly but certainly bending it 
to the snapping point; he begins to have time to look about him 
and discovers that this is not so bad an old world after all, and 
he decides to stay and see more of it, and the more he sees the 
more he wants to see until his acknowledged receipts get so num- 
erous at the home office that they fill two pigeon holes with paper 
and the office with the belief that he is immortal. 5. If annuities 
should become very popular insurance companies would be forced 
to go out of business. 6. An annuity may be inherited through a 
beneficiary interest in a policy equipped with an annuity attach- 
ment or it may be acquired by the payment of a single premium. 
7. The unpleasant side of an annuity is the sensation that there is 
some one, a cold, heartless corporation, that will be really pleased 
to hear of the holder's departure from this vale of tears. 

See Rejected Risk. 

"The doctor said he'd live a year — 
He named one as the limit. 
The doctor long since left the world 
But his patient still is in it. 

An annuity and six bottles of did it." 

Note to patent medicine advertisers. — The blank space left in the last line 
will be sold to the graft bidding highest. All bids must be accompanied with the 
names of three or more publishers as references. 

-10- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



A part ' ment House, n. See Flat Building. 



Ap ' pli cant, ap' li kant, n. [Unfortunately we can not give 
the derivation as our Greek type is pied with a font of Chinese 
type and a pound of ten-penny nails.] 1, A misnomer as used in 
life insurance phraseology. "Applicant" implies voluntary seek- 
ing. Few life insurance agents have been compelled to climb a 
tree to escape the pressure of an eager, surging mob of applicants. 
On the contrary, it is often reported that some so-called "appli- 
cant" has been discovered in a tree-top or behind the safe, where 
he modestly retired to escape — beg pardon — to avoid disappoint- 
ing a large number of life insurance agents who happened to drop 
in simultaneously. In time possibly the term will be changed to 
"the persuaded," "the induced," "the allured," or "the prevailed 
upon." Or, more likely, the wisdom of taking life insurance will 
dawn upon the enlightened human intellect and the buyers of 
life insurance will become "applicants" in spirit as well as in 
name. 

"An agent went, an applicant, to see 

But found that 'divil' an applicant was he." 

—Anonymous. 

Ap pli caption, ap pli ka' shun, n. 1. A document wearing the 
autograph of an applicant. 2. When it comes to autograph col- 
lections of this kind the life insurance agent is a fiend. The 
blank application may be a pretty piece of work typographically, 
but as long as it is blank its aesthetic beauty does not appeal to 
the agent. He will carry bunches of them around carelessly in his 
off-side pocket with other incumbrances, but as soon as one is 
made the repository of the "John Henry" of a good, husky-look- 
ing applicant, its merit becomes apparent. The excellency of the 
chirography is of no consideration, but the application's attrac- 
tiveness is measured by the cash amount appearing in the blank 
space left for that purpose. When it is signed the agent wears it 
in his inside pocket as near as possible to the region supposed to 
be occupied by the heart. 3. An application is said to have "gone 
through" when it and its signer have run the gauntlet of doctors, 
inspectors and rejectors who stand as an eternal barrier between 
the agent and opulence. 4. An application for a life insurance pol- 

-11— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



icy contains the most cheerful set of personal questions to be 
found, probably, outside a witness stand or the confessional, and 
the victim is continually reminded that the company is suspicious 
of his honesty and that if he attempts any fictitious liberties with 
his family history or coyly understates his age or modestly with- 
holds any incriminating secret or attempts in any way to deceive, 
falsify, commit perjury or tell a lie he will die in vain, for the 
application becomes a warranty and a part of the policy. 
See Applicant. 

Ap por^tion ment, n. 1. A term, common in loss settle- 
ments, where two or more companies are involved, meaning the 
proper division of the amount to be paid in settlement among the 
companies interested. 2. In such cases the companies exhibit 
their good training by strenuously refusing to accept more than 
their share. 3. The apportionment of a loss when a large number 
of companies is interested and a difference in policy forms is dis- 
covered is no holiday pastime. "There is more than one way to 
kill a cat," or words to that or some other effect, as Csesar or 
some other humorist once feelingly remarked upon some occasion 
or other, and there is also more than one rule for arriving at an 
apportionment. Consequently when five and twenty different ad- 
justers for different companies each use a different rule and nat- 
urally arrive at different conclusions, none of which is to be con- 
sidered for a moment by any individual adjuster, except the one 
which he obtained, there is a great demand for patience, diplom- 
acy, cracked ice and its communications, besides other things in- 
ternal, external and infernal — all of which goes to prove that 
there should be but one standard rule of apportionment. 

Compare Contribution. 

Appeals 'ment. °- 1- ^ct of appraising; valuation. 

Ap praise ' , v. t. [L. ad, to, and pretium, a price, 1. e. to set a 
price to.] 1. To determine upon values destroyed by fire. 2. To 
reconstruct in imagination an edifice and its contents from a heap 
of ashes. 

Ap prais ' er, ap praz' er, n. [Old Fr. appreisour.'] 1. One 

— 12- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



who estimates values destroyed by fire. 2. A professional ap- 
praiser becomes very expert. Ke can stand on the blackened 
walls of a cellar, view the two wagon loads of ashes it contains 
and then make out an itemized statement of the building and its 
contents before the fire. A little pile of ashes which would mean 
nothing to one of the common herd but soiled hands, a spoiled 
shine and a job for a whisk-broom with a colored porter attached 
to it would be recognized by him as the remnant of a pair of por- 
tieres, worth $3.21 at the time of the fire, the charred memento of 
an imitation mahogany center table, worth $10.00 new, or some 
other piece of bric-a-brac. 3. To be a success as an appraiser one 
should not be overstocked with faith in his fellow-men or with 
a sympathetic nature. He must remember that the insurance 
companies do not attempt to settle losses on the basis of love and 
affection, but upon market values. 4. The standard form of in- 
surance policy provides for three appraisers — one to be selected 
by the company, one by the assured and the third by these two. 
The assured usually evinces his true American generosity by 
offering to save the company trouble and select all three himself. 
Though the company appreciates this delicate expression of ten- 
der regard, it quite often declines his offer — yes, quite often. 

"Before the trained eye of the appraiser, the sheltering waUs rose phoenix- 
like from their ashes, the charred embers took, etc." 

—From Underwriting Fancies. Page 63. 



Ar ^ bi trate, v. t. [L. arhitor, to judge.] 1. To settle a dis- 
pute in the adjustment of a fire loss by submission to arbiters. 

Arbl tra'tioo, n. [L. arhitor, to judge.] 1. A means of 
settlement of a controversy in a loss adjustment by submitting 
the question to one or more persons known as arbitrators. An 
arbitration is usually the last act to an insurance melodrama. The 
plot has gradually thickened to such an unmanageable consistency 
that none of the stars who appeared in the first acts are able to 
extricate themselves with honor and dignity. They become heated 
through much discussion and, in some productions of life and ac- 
tion, they have addressed each other in endearing terms, called 
each other blessed and frolicked over each other in such an irre- 
pressible and astonishing manner and with such startling conse- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



quences to each other's style of beauty that they have to be re- 
moved for repairs. It is then that the arbitrators appear with sol- 
emn music and an automatic expense account. After much con- 
sideration a result is generally reached which convinces one side 
of their wisdom and the other of their glaring ignorance. 2. An 
arbitration, to be a success, must be bilateral to begin with and 
unilateral at the close. 3. Though the result of an arbitration is 
generally accepted as final, some cases engage later in a continu- 
ous performance in the courts. 
See Adjustment. 

A ^ re a, n. 1. Floor space of a building in square feet. The 

ground floor area is ascertained and this, graduated accprding to 
the number of stories, determines the charge. This is not a case 
of "the higher the fewer," but "the more the higher." 2. To de- 
termine the area of a floor borrow a tape measure and ascertain 
the length of each wall (inside measurement) in feet and inches. 
Then if your room is rectangular multiply the length by the 
width or vice versa, and you have it, providing your mathematics 
is in tune. But if your room is triangular, rhomboldal, penta- 
gonal, hexagonal, septangular, spheroidical, plantaganet, a conic 
section, a hyperbolic parabola or a Wagnerian rhapsody, you'd 
better ask your son or s.ome one else more intimately in touch 
with the distress signals. 3. As an architectural feature unbrok- 
en area can be overdone from an insurance standpoint. It is all 
very well for the architect to show his ability to roof over a quar- 
ter section of land by ingenious manipulation of arches, trusses 
and spans s,o that no supports from below are necessary to sus- 
tain the structure, but the achievement fails to appeal to the un- 
derwriter, who imagines the free abandon with which flames 
would frolic therein. To suit him it must be cut up by fire-wall 
partitions. 

Ar-'son, n. [L. ardeo, to burn.] 1. The act of voluntarily 
and maliciously burning the property of another. 2. The term is 
adopting expansion ideas and often refers to a similar perform- 
ance where the property belongs to the arsonist. When arson is 
of a personal nature it is commonly the result of an ungovernable 
desire to accumulate immediate wealth by realizing upon insur- 

— 14 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



ance policies. 3. Though arson can hardly be classed as an art — 
a fine art — it is a subject that will bear considerable study by the 
novitiate before he can become adept. There are no schools where 
the science is taught and the student must struggle along as best 
he can with whatever crude instruments he may have and stray 
bits of information he may pick up. Then, too, his experiments 
generally attract considerable embarrassing attention and ad- 
verse criticism, which is very annoying, for, as a class, students 
in arson are naturally diffident, retiring (three steps at a time), 
sensitive and easily discouraged. Often a tall, slim complected 
arson sophomore has voluntarily abandoned a special experiment 
just because one or two curious individuals showed an interest in 
his preparations. There is no doubt but many wonderful dis- 
coveries have thus been prevented which would have illumined 
whole communities and brightened lives which were plunged in 
darkness, etc. The abnormal modesty peculiar to this study in- 
duces one who practices it to feel best satisfied when he receives 
no credit — he even is willing that some one else may take his laur- 
els. A complete experimental laboratory contains, among other 
things, kerosene, gasoline, benzine, turpentine, oiled waste, noise- 
less matches, a dark lantern, over-insurance, a dark night and an 
alibi. 4. Some States show their good spirit towards such educa- 
tional pursuits by encouraging arson with valued-policy laws. 5. 
Though it is not overcrowded as a profession, most of the good 
places are taken (for from two to fourteen years). Some men 
who are busy during the day study arson at night. 

Compare Incendiarism. 

See Fire-Bug, Incendiary, Pyro Maniac. 



As sess '' ment, n. 1. Comprehensively, an allotment to be 
raised on the call of the officials of an assessment association, a 
fraternal order or a mutual benefit society. 2. Restrictively, the 
amount pro rata each individual in an organization is expected to 
contribute upon occasion of one of the aforesaid calls. 3. Also re- 
fers to the chief end of members of mutual fire organizations. 4. 
One thing in which growth is not a virtue. A man may brag of 
the remarkable development of his son, or the luxuriant aspira- 
tions of his cabbage plants or the growth of his bank account, 
his business, his mustache or his circle of friendship; but he does 

-15 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



not note with pleasure growth tendencies in an assessment if he Is 
afflicted with such a weakness. An assessment which has been 
jogging along at a bi-monthly rate and suddenly shows symptoms 
of calling oftener, or maybe not oftener, but louder, should be 
viewed with suspicion. 5. The only specific for a growing assess- 
ment is amputation. 6. If there is anything above all others that 
the average American citizen dislikes to pay it is an assessment 
levied by the receiver of a defunct mutual fire insurance company. 
The courts, however, gleefully back the receiver. 

"The older he grew the larger it grew 

Until it came to a showitsg. 
There was one thing to do— he wisely withdrew 
But the assessment kept on growing." 

From Assessmentism and other Jackessmentisms, 

Page 8. 

As sess '' ment ism, as sess' ment ism, n. 1. A term com- 
monly applied to a fallacious system of life insurance which 
thrived in the United States during the last quarter of the nine- 
teenth century. Through skillfully working upon the credulity 
of the people, its promoters wrote a vast amount of this imitation 
insurance, but the failure of the principles to work out as' was 
promised brought ultimate ruin, and, where assessmentism once 
spread as a mantle, it now exists only in spots. Its promoters 
based their hopes on the well-known fact that a "sucker is born 
every minute," but they discovered that this was not fast enough 
for their purposes. 2. Assessmentism is otherwise known as the 
pocket-reserve system. This has an alluring sound, but, as an 
available asset, it has been passed up as worthless because it is so 
hopelessly hard to collect. 3. Diametrically opposed to "old-line," 
or legal-reserve, insurance. 

See Fraternalism, Socialism, Buncoism. 



As 'sets, n. pi. [Fr. assez, enough.] 1. The financial re- 
sources of an insurance company. 2. The sine qua non, the bone 
and sinew of an underwriting organization. 3. That characteris- 
tic of an insurance company which is encouraged in every possi- 
ble way. 4. Some companies are born without assets; this they 
soon discover to have been a serious oversight on their part. A 
company without assets is like a yellow pup without a license — 

—16— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

both are liable to be legally curtailed at any moment (not meant 
to be humorous, but pathetic). 5. More assets, like other desir- 
able financial attributes, may be acquired by patience and "never 
to bed and early to rise" methods. 6. Scientific — Assets repre- 
sent the centrifugal force of the underwriting realm, acting 
against liabilities, the centripetal. An unbalancing of these forces 
would bring immediate disaster. If it were all assets and no lia- 
bilities, the company would, without doubt, fly off into some un- 
extraditable place, possibly accompanied by the president and the 
cashier; but if it were all liabilities and no assets, it would im- 
mediately gravitate to the center of destruction accompanied by 
a receiver and a dull and sickening thud. 

See Admitted Assets, Unadmitted Assets, Liabilities. 

'• An' 'twere, methinks, a wild-cat for, forsooth, 
Its assets were a desk, a broom 
And libels on the truth " 

—From 27te King of the Kaw, Act VII, Scene 2. 

Assignee ^, as sin e', n. [L. assigno.l 1. One to whom a pol- 
icy or an interest therein is assigned or transferred, 2. In sales of 
real estate the purchaser becomes the assignee of the fire insur- 
ance policy; in cases of financial embarrassment, the relief party 
becomes the assignee of the life insurance policy; in times of 
political adversity and uncertainty, the ward heelers, colonizers 
and boodle dispensers become the assignees of the officeholder's 
administrative policy. 3. An assignee should have an insurable 
interest in the policy assigned. It behooves an assignee to as- 
sure himself of his claim to the title, for so-called assignees have 
been known to awake to the fact that they had merely been hold- 
ing an empty bag while the supposed contents were vested in an- 
other. Not only vested, but shirted, coated and overcoated in an- 
other and the so-called assignee did not hold so much as a shoe- 
string title to the proceeds of the policy. 4. A person becomes an 
assignee by having his or her name written in the proper place 
on a policy when the weather is favorable for such an arrange- 
ment. 

See Beneficiary, Insurable Interest. 

Assign^ment, as sine' ment, n. [L. assigno.l 1. The act 
of transferring one's interest in an insurance policy to another. 

I.D-2. _17_ 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



2. A transaction common in fire underwriting. If property is sold 
or otherwise disposed of an assignment is necessary. It is a sim- 
ple matter and consists of scratching the back of the policy in an 
intelligent and legible manner with a pen — the pen should be 
dipped in ink prior to the scratching. Then if the company whose 
name appears on the policy has no objection to the assignee, po- 
litical or otherwise, the policy continues to furnish the same 
brand of indemnity until it dies a natural death. 3. In life in- 
surance the assignment of a policy is not always such an easy 
matter. Generally the beneficiary is reluctant to relinquish an 
interest in a nice promising futurity. Sufficient pressure may be 
brought to bear, however, to cause a reluctant consent; but, even 
then, it is found in some States that the statutory condition of 
the climate is such that assignments will not fructify when the 
beneficiary is the wife of the assured. An effort to dispose of an 
interest in a life policy under such conditions is similar to the 
fruitless endeavors one may put forth to estrange the affections 
and presence of a family cat. Those who have ridden across 
three counties in the dark of the moon and distributed a loving 
tabby athwart the midnight landscape in the fond hope that there 
would be no more grand operas under their windows and; have 
found said tabby basking before the kitchen fire upon their re- 
turn home, can appreciate this simile. It will hardly be worth 
while, however, for those to make the experiment who are not 
already wise by experience. 
See Beneficiary, Assignee. 

As so ci action, as so si a' shun, n. I. 1. An organization of 
Insurance men formed for mutual protection, sympathetic inter- 
course and an interchange of ideas and experience. 2. A harm- 
less society of underwriters often mistaken by outsiders for a 
trust. 

See Board. 

II. See Fraternal Association. 

Assur^ance, as shur' ans, n. [Low L. assecuro.l 1. An 
agreement to furnish indemnity. 2. Formerly restricted to in- 
demnity for life contingencies, but now common enough in the 
land of the Stars and Stripes not to cause comment when used. 

-18- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



It has been made to feel at home by a number of compa- 
nies who have incorporated it in their names. This proves that 
the difference is not due to climatic conditions, as some word 
horticulturists have claimed. 3. Whether called assurance or in- 
surance, the standard variety has always been found a balm for 
human woe in its various forms. 
Syn. Insurance. 

''Assurance may be such in name 

Though not, in practice, worth a blame 
Assurance that assures indeed, — 

That, only, should a wise man heed." 

From Assurance, with or without. A Homily. 
Thirteenthly. 

As sure^'jV. t. See Insure. 
Assured'', n. See Insured. 

Au to mat ^ ic, [From two groups of Greek microbes mean- 
ing self and to seek or strive.] 1. Self-acting. 2. Due for a cer- 
tain stunt under proper cpnditions regardless of human agencies. 
3. It is a term of significance in fire underwriting nomenclature 
because of the many devices and equipments for discouraging fire 
or its progress which get into action under the influence of a ris- 
ing temperature. In point consider: Automatic sprinklers, auto- 
matic fire-doors, shutters, alarms, expense accounts, etc., etc. 
This feature is effected by use of links or keys ,of metal, fusible 
under very low temperatures, and which, upon melting, release 
the eager watch-dogs, the guardians of public weal, that are ever 
straining at their bonds in their tireless passion to be at the 
throat of the devouring fire element the instant it appears. [This 
beautiful and thrilling gem of rhetorical excellence is generously 
contributed by the lexicographer without extra charge or further 
apolpgy.] It might be appropriately noted that the aforesaid 
figurative watch-dogs partake of the nature of the literal type in 
a somewhat noticeable propensity for mistakes and over-zeal. 
Watch-dogs have been known to abstract mementoes from the 
calves of their owner's legs— sprinklers and such have been 
known to become panic-stricken upon mpst unseemly and un- 
necessary occasions, making it necessary to call a successful 
bargain sale off in the third round and issue rain checks at the 

— 19 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

door. 4. A sensitive automatic device is like a sensitive woman 
and that's all anybody knows about either. 
See Sprinkler equipment et al. 

Av ^ er age Clause, av' er age claws, n. [Low L. avera- 
gium; ordinary L. clausula.'] 1. A clause which is attached to 
a policy that covers property in various localities and by which 
the liability for a loss on any one piece is limited to that pro- 
portion of the loss which the piece damaged bears to the whole 
amount covered. 2. A safety attachment to prevent compre- 
hensive policies from resulting in comprehensive losses. 3. 
Med: — A preventative external application which is prescribed 
in cases where a policy shows symptoms of developing a loss of 
inordinate corpulence. It much resembles a piece of paper — 
one side bears cabalistic terms and expressions of a decisive 
nature and the other side is blank. Along one edge of the plain 
surface a narrow strip of defunct equine essence or some other 
adhesive, but less aromatic mixture, is applied, by which the 
clause is then attached to the policy. Average clauses should- 
be applied to the face of the policy and care should be exercised 
to avoid jumping a claim already staked out (these medical 
terms are common to gold fever cases) by some other variety 
of clause or typographical treatment. 

See Blanket policy. 

A ward^, n. [Low L. awardo.'] 1. That amount which is 
given by appraisers as the loss by fire. 2. An award of this kind 
is seldom equally agreeable to both parties. It does not pay an 
award to be sensitive and to feel pained when it discovers that 
it has not won universal approval. Generally the tastes of the 
parties belli are so diametrically opposed that the most accommo- 
dating award that ever rose phoenix-like from ashes could never 
hope to please both. One may like a nice, fat award, while the 
other prefers a lean one with a hollow chest and a death rattle; 
the one favors an award with a good figure while the other says, 
"The less figure the better." These inharmonious tastes some- 
times flatly refuse to adopt unanimously the award with which 
the appraisers have presented them and then, all precedents and 
promises to the contrary notwithstanding, the unfortunate little 

— 20 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



orphan is hauled into the courts and public notice. 3. Under a 
microscope of ten-horse power an award looks like a piece of 
mosaic or a crazy-quilt; for its construction is accomplished by 
so many additions, subtractions, cuttings, paddings, shavings, 
scrapings, squeezings, twistings, pullings, etc., that the original 
proposition is almost entirely eliminated in the end. 
See Appraiser. 

••So what's the use for an award to try 
To please two masters, no not I, 
The one may growl, but the other smiles—" 

—From Insurance Jinglets. V. 18. 



B 



Bank ^ rupt cy, n. See Failure. 

Ba ' sis - Rate, n. [A Grseco-Roman combination.] 1. The 
rate according to a schedule on a standard building in a standard 
city. It is like the fourth and fifth dimensions in higher mathe- 
matics — no one ever saw one, but by a contortion of the imagina- 
tion a mental conception of something is formed that feels as if it 
might be it. 2. The foundation on which the rate structure is 
erected. The style this season is to build the basis-rate high 
enough to raise the completed rate above the miasmatic vapors 
which have caused such havoc among fire insurance companies 
in the past decade. The prospects are that basis-rates will have 
to be built still higher by several rows of bricks. Property- 
owners are positive that such changes do not add to the beauty of 
the structure. The measure of their protest can be estimated by 
multiplying the increase in the basis-rate by the deficiency in the 
fire department and dividing the product by the pounds pressure 
under which the watermains will burst. 

See Schedule. 

" Why gaze with yearning eye aloft 
At underwriting profit roost? 
Just land your toe beneath, full soft, 
And give the basis-rate a boost." 

—Anon. Page 6. 

Ben e fi '' cial As so ci a ^ tion, n. 1. An association formed 
for the mutual protection of its members against ills common to 

-21 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



humanity, but which generally develops ills and disappointments 
within itself greater than those against which it was formed. 
See Fraternal Association. 



Benefi 'ciary, ben e fish' ya re, n. [L. hene, good; facio, 
to do.] 1. The person or estate tO' whom a life insurance policy is 
made payable. 2. To be a beneficiary one must have an insurable 
interest in the life of the insured. 3. Being a beneficiary to a 
large extent has been known to blunt the keen edge of grief. If a 
*cross-grained old pirate who has been running his home-sweet- 
home like a slave ship dies, leaving a number of life insurance 
policies as a solace to the bereaved family, the beneficiaries some- 
times are not able to put up even a cheap imitation of respectable 
woe. If they do shed tears a chemical analysis would not reveal 
an abundance of salt, which predominates, of course, in genuine 
lachromose manifestations of "bitter" sorrow. 4. The changing 
of beneficiaries is an important feature of the business and is of- 
ten provided for in the contract. In some States, however, such 
transactions are prohibited where the beneficiary is the wife of 
the insured, and no matter if he discovers positively that his ac- 
ceptance of her as his supposed spare-rib was a case of mistaken 
identity, he has the choice only of continuing the policy for her 
benefit or lapsing it to the company's profit. 

See Insurable Interest. 

BindjV. t. [Gothic Mnden.l To agree to insure. To make 
a temporary insurance contract until the policy, in all its dignity 
and Spencerian flourish, can be prepared. 

Bind'^er, n. [Gothic Mnden.'\ 1. A temporary insurance 
contract in anticipation of the real article. An agreement to 
issue a policy which gives insurance until the property is regu- 
larly insured. 2. Though a binder is not as imposing a contract 
as a full-fledged policy, the brand of indemnity it furnishes is 



♦ The "Prudential Weekly Record" takes exceptions to this in that "cross- 
grained old pirates" do not exhibit signs of domestic solicitude in the way of in- 
surance. In explanation, the lexicographer admits that this is merely an imagi- 
native case for poetic effect. 

—22— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

just as good while it lasts. 3. It might be apropos to remark in 
passing that a binder of this kind is not similar to the binders 
one would find in a harvest field, and the two should not be con- 
fused. As a furnisher of indemnity against fire the latter would 
not prove to be a success. 4. There are also other kinds of bind- 
ers, such as bookbinders, highbinders, etc., but it is not within 
the province of an insurance dictionary to define them. 5. Bind- 
ers usually operate over night and are resorted to by the agent 
when it is too late to get at his policies, which would be kept in 
his time-lock safe — if he had one. A binder is a good thing to 
hold a man off with while the agent steps out the back way to see 
if his credit is good; or to see if he has a mine set under the 
property in question which is to be touched off as soon as the pol- 
icy is written and delivered. 5. A binder looks after the premises 
while the details of the contract are being determined. 6. The 
binder is the lad who holds the horse while the trade is being 
made. 



Blank, blanque, n. [It. 'bianco.'\ 1. An incomplete insur- 
ance form or contract, printed and containing spaces to be filled in 
with names, dates, amounts, etc., as individual cases may require. 
Note. — If, in filling in the aforesaid names, dates, amounts, etc., 
the agent's pen happens to trip over a rough place in the paper 
and spills a few streaks of ink across its virgin surface the docu- 
ment is then called a blank, blank, blankety blank. 3. Blanks axe 
as various in form and purpose as the exigencies of the business 
require. As the said exigencies are quite versatile there are num- 
erous styles of blanks. There are blank policies, blank daily re- 
ports, mortgage blanks, dwelling house blanks, permit blanks, 
blanks for various forms, receipt blanks, etc., etc. 4. The com- 
panies furnish the blank policies, daily report blanks and, erratic- 
ally, some of the others while the agent makes good the deficiency 
and glad the local printer. It can be shown conclusively by the 
United States Census Report for 1900 that the universal affluence 
commonly noticed among job printers and publishers is due to th© 
printing of blanks for local insurance agents. 

See Supplies, etc. 

"Neatly arranged in a fire proof safe I saw several styles of insurance 
blank forms." 

—From Insurance Fairy Tales. Page 11. 

— 23 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Blank ' et Pol ^ i cy, n. [Pr. blanchet; It. poUzza.'] 1. A 
non-specific policy. 2. A comprehensive policy. 3. A policy which 
covers two or more pieces of property, naming hut one amount 
for the whole aggregation. 4. Blanket policies are more popular 
with the assured than with the companies. They much resemble 
a poor rule in that they do not work both ways to equal advan- 
tage. 5. A policy on a livery stable which covers vehicles, horses, 
currycombs, hay, oats, the moral hazard and other impedimenta 
is technically termed a horse blanket policy. 6. Charity is cred- 
ited with covering a multitude of sins — in this particular it might 
be said to correspond to a blanket policy, but otherwise they 
are readily identified, the one from the other. 7. A blanket policy, 
in appearance, conforms to the general run of policies, being set 
forth on a piece of paper. It would therefore not be conspicu- 
ously serviceable as a solitary means of protection against an 
adult Alaskan midwinter blizzard. In this the name is slightly 
misleading. 

See Non-Specific. 

"A blanket policy names but one amount on the entire risk, even though 
the various objects, classes or divisions be vt'holly detached and unexposed to 
each other."— From Might to the Point. Page 20. 

Block) blok, n. [Dut, Ger. and Sw. hloclc.l 1. A large build- 
ing of two or more stories built of brick or stone. Generally oc- 
cupied for mercantile, manufacturing ,or oflBce purposes, though 
quite commonly subverted to domestic uses. 2. In placing insur- 
ance on a block or for any tenant of a block, the entire occu- 
pancy must be taken into consideration. 3. Blocks are usually 
found where land is valuable, the more valuable the taller the 
crop. Not necessarily fertile land, f,or some of the highest blocks 
in the country have been raised successfully on ground that was 
agriculturally worthless. Swampy ground in Chicago that was 
only half made when nature gave up the job has, under proper en- 
couragement, produced some of the tallest blocks in history. 
Still it takes something more than a peat marsh and a yearning 
desire to raise bl,ocks. 4. Blocks are common to congested dis- 
tricts, their rectangular style of construction permitting them to 
flock with exceeding economy as to space. The height of blocks 
used to be limited only by the blue sky, but many cities have 
passed building ordinances which have cut them down below the 

—24 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



snow line. In New York and Chicago, tenants upon the upper 
floors of most of the highest blocks escape the annoyance attend- 
ant upon the rarefaction of the atmosphere by the use of devices 
charged with liquid air. 5. Block also is used as a synonym of 
square, signifying a group of buildings, ordinarily a unit bounded 
by four streets. 6. Block likewise has a pleasant association with 
stocks, a block of stjOck signifying a number of shares. 
See Building. 

Blot '' ter, n. [Gothic tlautTijan.l 1. A piece of absorbent 
paper used for advertising purposes by insurance companies. One 
side modestly announces that the company which propagated it 
has only $6,843,289 between it and the poorhouse, has bought $8,- 
932,563,284 worth of ashes on which it is unable to realize and 
will the kind public please contribute a few premiums and old 
clothes or other discarded luxuries towards its immediate sup- 
port. The reverse side is left blank, as are also the edges. 2. 
Blotters come in all sizes from the diminutive proportions com- 
mon to postage stamps (?) up to the pretentious variety which is 
able to tuck its wings comfortably into the corner pockets of a 
two by twice desk pad. 3. Blotters and calendars are the Dunn 
and Bradstreet of insurance companies in the judgment of the 
small boy. 4. Blotters are excellent canvassing documents. Few 
people refuse them, though it is not likely many recipients sit up 
nights to read them. Still people have been known to call at an 
agent's office voluntarily and ask for a few copies of his latest 
edition of blotters. This always cheers up the agent and gives 
him a new interest in life. [Absorbing though this subject may 
be, the foregoing must suffice.] 5. P. S. — Blotters are also used 
for absorbing the surplus ink on a freshly written page, also for 
picking up a smear of mucilage newly spilt upon one's mahog^ 
any top desk, etc., etc. 

See Supplies. 

*'Do you keep blotters, sir?" she asked sweetly. 

"Ah, no, pretty maid, not to-day, 
Of a truth, though," he said quite discreetly, 

"We don't keep them, we give them away." 

—From Akesenpaigns. V. 17. 

Board, bored, n. [Gothic baurd.} 1. An organization oi 

— 25- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



local association of agents or representatives of fire insurance 
companies, designed for the purpose of maintaining uniform 
rates and correct practices. 2. A secret society of the beneficial 
type, limited exclusively to fire insurance men, branch lodges 
of which are found in many of our larger cities. The guarded 
secrecy of board meetings in some communities has led a sus- 
picious populace, encouraged by a zealous press, to regard in- 
surance boards as an attack upon the inherent right of man to 
know his neighbor's business, and as a menace to the founda- 
tions of free and untrammelled citizenship. When a loyal tax 
and premium payer discovers that one of these nefarious or- 
ganizations is in secret session p']id he stringhalts up to the 
closed door of their lair like a cat stepping through wet grass 
and applies his good eye to the keyhole only to learn that some 
foresighted member on the other side has hung his coat on the 
door knob, he is justified in protesting and in fiocking together 
and legislating against such evident plots aimed at the safety 
of the republic. Of course, none but the initiated knows what 
happens on the other side of the door, and it is not the purpose 
of a standard and authoritative work of this kind to surmise 
on such an important subject. The offer of a tempting ^ bribe, 
the giving of the distress signal, which the lexicographer learned 
by accident (uninsured), all have thus far failed to break down 
the integrity of any board member we have approached and to 
cause him to reveal the pass words, signs, secrets, laws, by- 
laws and regulations of his lodge. We are almost inclined to 
raise our bid from three for a quarter brand to ten-cent straights. 

4. Boards are not found in some climates for legislative reasons. 

5. Boards are supported by assessments and fines. So far as 
known, Carnegie never endowed an insurance board. Maybe 
he is waiting to be asked. 

Syn. Compact. 
See Association. 



Board Rules, bored rules, n. [Idiom. U. S.] 1. Rules gov- 
erning a rating board. 2. An extremely delicate and fragile com- 
modity is a board rule — so easily broken. Such carelessness is 
penalized and it usually costs a member more to break one than 
it does to drop a cut glass punch bowl or to break a jardiniere or 
a promise to his wife— no! no! hardly! But anyway, he has to 

— 26 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



put up enough if it is discovered that he has dropped a rate on 

the rules and cracked them, bumped them with a rebate meat ax 
or otherwise marred or disfigured their style of beauty. 3. Brok- 
en board rules are useless, but they can be patched up again to be 
almost as good as new if the guilty agent is willing to do his 
share towards restoration. 4. Agents sometimes feel that when 
board rules are made they are cut entirely across the grain. [Key 
to this alleged witticism will be furnished with one year's prepaid 
subscription to "Rough Notes."] 

"Board rules are the safeguard of uniformity, unanimity, conformity and 
a number of other large words equally as commendable." From Insurance 
Maxims. Page 1. 

Bo'nu5, n. [A naturalized Latin word meaning "good."] 1. 
A cash reward given the representative of a life insurance com- 
pany who has written a stipulated amount of business in a given 
time. 2. Bonus may mean "good," but its goodness is not of the 
unmitigated variety. The profiting agent appreciates its fine 
points when he cashes the consequent check, but the business in 
general has found it somewhat in the nature of a discolored optic. 
[Med.] It puts a premium on rebating. The agent notices the 
emaciated condition of his calendar pad with the waning of the 
year; he also notices that a few thousand more are necessary to 
qualify him for his bonus. Since one and one make two he can 
hardly be blamed for starting out on a tour of philanthropy, ex- 
changing policies for applications until he has enough to make 
good. 3. The popularity of this brand of stimulant for business 
some years ago led many prominent citizens to acquire the habit 
of loading up on Christmas gift insurance every December, carry- 
ing large amounts at almost no cost. The companies have been 
waking up and find that there is a "next day" to bonuses, just as 
there is to champagne, bourbon and other stimulants. 

See Gift Insurance. 

Brok ' er, n. [A. S. 'brucan.'\ 1. One who negotiates the 
placing of insurance, representing the assured. 2. A free lance. 
3. The broker goes on the principle of "first catch your hare." 
He will browse around until he bags a few lines which are not 
covered to the limit and then he peddles them to companies which 
may want a mess. On some days, especially when the weather is 

— 27- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

good and the companies' regular agents have been pretty suc- 
cessful themselves, he finds the market poor and he has to dis- 
pose of them wherever he can. In such cases he often makes trades 
with concerns whose credit is not Al. Some immense lines are 
handled exclusively by brokers — notably railroad and trust prop- 
erties. This leads to the writing of considerable business over 
the heads of local agents — they have been known to speak of it in 
meetings of their associations. 4. Brokers occur both in fire and 
life underwriting; but if the regular agents had their way they 
would soon be where the woodbine twineth, wherever that 
may be. 

Buck ' et-BrI gade ', n. [Provincialism.] 1. A string of 
hysterical men, women and children which passes a line of buck- 
ets from a cistern to a fire. Some of the buckets may contain 
water when they reach the devouring element, part of which is 
dashed in the faces of the bystanders and the remainder is ruth- 
lessly cast on the flames. 2. An organized riot which occurs con- 
temporaneously with a village fire. The fire is usually the cause; 
the bucket-brigade, the effect. 3. Bucket-brigades often have a 
really very discouraging effect on fires. It is not so miich the 
water that is thrown which accomplishes this result as the de- 
pressing hostility by which the flames are met on every side. A 
little, new-born blaze wakes up in a barn late at night and begins 
to take an interest in its surroundings. It hardly gets a taste 
of the hay, which it finds so palatable, when it is rudely startled 
by the clangor of a bell and yelps of "Fire! Fire! !" It soon finds 
itself surrounded by a wild, glaring mob of angry faces and it is 
rudely sprinkled with chilling spurts of water. It quickly sick- 
ens because of this cold reception and dies of a broken heart. 

See Water Supply. 

"Never heeding the cabbage patch, 
Tramping the onion bed, 
Down through Sy's garden 
Rushed the bucket-brigade." 

—From The Charge of the Bucket- Brigade. St. 6. 

Build ^er's Risk, bild' er's risque, n. 1. A building in 
course of construction on which insurance is carried either in the 
name of the owner pr the contractor or both, with the "as his in- 

— 28 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



terest may appear" feature attached. It is written at short rates 
from one to six months. 2. The loss on such a policy is deter- 
mined by the amount of work and material that has entered into 
the structure at the time of the fire. This is figured by ascer- 
taining and valuing the number of feet of lumber, the number of 
bricks, the number of hods pf "mort" that have been carried, the 
number of steps which the gentlemen carrying said hods have 
taken, the number of nails that have been driven, the number of 
licks to drive said nails, with a few other details, increased by 10 
or more per cent, as an allowance for waste. (This explicit 
and lucid rule for determining the value of a building under con- 
struction will be found in no other standard insurance work ex- 
tant or .otherwise and should be duly appreciated and memor- 
ized.) 2. Also builders' hazard, signifying the increased hazard 
attendant upon the making of repairs and improvements. 



Build ' ing, bild' ing, n. [Ger. hilden.'] 1. A structure. 2. 
An edifice. 3. A systematically, premeditated arrangement of ma- 
terials to form a protection from the elements, public inquisitive- 
ness, book agents, insura — no, collectors, et al. 4. Zool. — The 
abode or nest of the genus homo. Many different varieties have 
been found in the United States within the past few years. The 
more common type consists of neatly fashioned strips of wood 
adroitly pinned together with bits of metal. The interior is di- 
vided into cells smoothly daubed with a pasty composition which 
hardens rapidly (unless you want to move in right away). The 
exterior is often embellished with a quickly-drying liquid of vari- 
ous hues, as the case might be. Another common type is com- 
posed of stone or hardened cubes of clay instead of wood. These 
habitations are usually built on the ground, often, also, on credit, 
which seriously mars the artistic effect. The creatures who live 
in them guard their habitations very zealously, as one will find 
if he pokes a stick through one of the openings or smashes in the 
side of the building with a brick. After making the experiment 
it is well to adjourn to a safe distance to note the effect. 5. Build- 
ings are of interest to fire underwriters because of their pro- 
pensity for burning. The combustibility of a building is deter- 
mined by multiplying the specific gravity of the mineral sub- 
stances entering into its composition by two-thirds of the dens- 

-29- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



ity of the vegetable materials and squaring the inspector. 6. New 
York, Chicago and several other places are making a specialty of 
buildings. 

See Fire-Trap, Fire-Proof, etc. 

Bun ''CO ism, n. See Gold Brick. 

Burn, bern, v. t. [A. S. lyrnan; Ger. "brennen; Pol. "burn- 
upsM.I 1. To destroy by fire. 2. Property may be burned by acci- 
dent or by intent. Fire insurance companies are generally curi- 
ous as to the cause of a fire, for if it is proved to have been pro- 
moted by the party of the second part in the policy c.ontract with 
malice aforethought and a quart of gasoline or other incendiary 
substance, the party of the first part is relieved of all liability, 
obligation or accountability for the loss. 3. The burning of prop- 
erty f,or insurance is quite a fad with certain sects of people 
known as incendiaries, firebugs or pyromaniacs. [See Same.] 

See Arson, Fire, Conflagration, Combustion, 

Burn, V. i. 1. To be on fire. 2. To combust. 3. To oxidate. 
4. A house may burn up or it may burn down. Authorities differ, 
but investigation fails to indicate that it makes any difference to 
the fire insurance companies having policies involved. Darwin or 
some other Grecian politician of the Ionic period, states emphat- 
ically in his rightfully celebrated handbook entitled "The Rise 
and Fall of the Dutch Republic," that "burn up" refers to the 
smoke, while "burn down" refers to the ashes. His line of rea- 
S|0ning is quite transparent to the mathematical mind and should 
be conclusive. 5. Burning conducted on an extensive scale is 
known as a conflagration. 

*' The man stood by the burning block- 
Smiled at his policy 
For twice the value of his stock, 
•Twas a Buckeye fire, you see." 
—From Valued Policy Lawlessness and Other Jingles. Rev. St. '92. 



\^ 



Cat ^ en dar, n. [L. calendae.'\ 1. An invention of insurance 
companies used for advertising purposes and keeping track of 



30 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



time. It is generally composed of a heavy cardboard to which 
are attached a number of leaves, one for each month, on which 
are printed the tabulated days of the month by weeks, the various 
stunts of the moon and the name of the best insurance company 
on earth and its agent. 2. Calendars vary in size, in cost of pro- 
duction and in popularity. Some are plain and businesslike, some 
are artistic and dainty, some are neither. Some show the whole 
year on one surface, others reveal but one day at a time. The 
latter were invented as a source of mental culture and any mind 
that has successfully survived the year without forgetting to tear 
off the old sheet each morning will be equal to almost any feat of 
mental callisthenics or heavy lifting. 3. Last year's calendars and 
last year's birds' nests are both quoted low in market reports. 4. 
There is no excuse for any home not being provided with this ne- 
cessity. There are always enough to go around. If one is clever 
he may be able to obtain two copies. He will be more adroit if 
he escapes getting a dozen. 5. Calendars go into effect January 1. 
See Supplies and the nearest insurance agent. 

"A calendar is unique in that it is a business necessity, it costs nothing and 
is brought to you ' with thanks.' Would there were more such." — From Jn«wr- 
ance Truisms, Page ?. 

Can ^ eel, v. t. [Colloq. U. S. from "can sell," implying "we 
don't want to buy."] 1. To discontinue an insurance contract. 2. 
To take up a policy. 3. In fire insurance a policy may be canceled 
by either party at pleasure, or displeasure either, for that matter. 
4. A common but most unpopular word when addressed to an 
agent by a manager. The agent does not enjoy having his handi- 
work thus marred. 5. Cancelling a policy is often the outward 
manifestation of inner mental processes known as "better judg- 
ment" or "careful consideration." 6. A notice to cancel may be 
given for various reasons. The insured may wish to terminate 
the contract because he doubts the stability of the company, be- 
lieves his rate is too high, thinks the president of the company 
gets too large a salary, wishes to spite the agent, etc. The com- 
pany may cancel because it doubts the integrity of the insured, 
believes the rate is too low, thinks the insured is spending too 
much money, smells smoke, gets scared, prefers to pay return 
premiums rather than losses, etc. 7. The agent who neglects to 
cancel a policy when instructed to do so assumes the liability per- 

-31- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

sonally, a suflacient incentive for his nimble compliance with, a 
distasteful order. 8. In life insurance a policy is canceled only 
upon violations of its terms. 

See Return Premium, Lapsed Policy. 

Can ^ celed Pol i ^ cy, n. 1. A policy that has been canceled. 
2. A prematurely terminated insurance contract. 3. The hollow 
evidence of former prosperity and of which the great poet and 
statesman, McNall, said, in a moment of temporary enlighten- 
ment, "It has seen better days." There is doubtless nothing more 
gorged with pathos than the spectacle of an insurance policy in 
full bloom of a precarious and probably brilliant career cut down 
without warning by cancellation. 

Can eel !a -' tion, n. The act of canceling an insurance con- 
tract. 

Can^vass, v. t. [From canvas, which originally meant "to 
sift through canvas." It now means to sift speech through a nar- 
row crack in a door or a key hole.] 1. To seek diligently for'appli- 
cants. To search out the by-ways and hedges. To prospect. 



Can'vasser, n. 1. A species of life insurance agent 
common to industrial companies. 2. One who gets business by 
going after it. 3. The successful industrial canvasser leads a 
strenuous life. He is as persistent as the laws of gravitation, the 
rythmatic swing of the planets in their orbits or a setting hen. He 
recognizes in his vocabulary no such word as "fail." If he sees it 
here he will not know what it means. He sheds discouragement 
as a duck sheds water. The reluctant prospect who chances to be 
the object of his attack may invite him off of the premises by 
means of a shotgun and a bulldog with a new line of dental goods 
which he is anxious to introduce, and the canvasser may filter 
away into the twilight three steps at a time; but he will be back 
in the morning to get the hat and, perchance, the bosom of his 
trousers which he forgot the evening before. He will also smil- 
ingly inquire when it will be convenient for the medical exam- 
iner to call and pass on the application with which he was favored 

— 32— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



the night before. The wise prospect surrenders at once when he 
finds such a man on his trail and becomes an applicant. 

"The canvasser knew well, of course, 

A woman's 'no' means 'yes,' 
He shoved the 'app.' in through the door, 

She signed it? Well, I guess." 

—From Bluff, or How to Win Out. V 8. 

Cap ' i tal, kap' i tie, n. [L, capitalis.'] 1. The amount invest- 
ed in the stock of an insurance company. 2. That which a stock 
company has and a mutual company has not. 3. The nucleus 
about which the financial organism develops. 4. The capital 
of the older insurance companies is often proportionately small 
compared with the entire assets, and the dividends are conse- 
quently large. In such cases the stock representing said capital 
is highly cherished by those who happen to have specimens. 
Collections of insurance stock certificates are quite the fad in 
some eastern cities, and especially in Hartford, Conn. You go 
into almost any home in that town, and instead of bringing out 
the family photograph album, a la western style, they will pro- 
duce their collections of insurance stocks and show you the 
various styles of tjTographical work in vogue years ago or more. 
These specimens are not valued according to their artistic merit, 
but are ranked solely on their dividend-producing ability, evinc- 
ing a somevv-hat depraved and morbid unappreciative taste of 
high art, deplorable anywhere and doubly so in the effete East. 
Such collections, however, are said to be profitable. The proper 
way is to buy the capital stock at par and wait for it to advance 
to a premium of 400 or 500 per cent. By repeating this process 
sufficiently the collector in the course of a thousand years can 
realize a tidy sum to retire on. This, however, could hardly be 
recommended as a means of livelihood to a man of small means. 



Cer tif ' i cate of Au thor ^ i ty, n. See License. 

Charge, n. [It. carco; Sp. carga; Fr. chargeJ^ 1. An addi- 
tion to a schedule rate because of certain deficiencies or physical 
conditions touching the risk which increase the hazard. 2. The 
items which appear on the debit side of a rate's anatomy. 3. An- 

I. D.— 3. —33 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



tithetically opposed to credit. 4. Charges are made for openings 
in walls, falling wall hazards, exposures, floor openings, moral 
hazards, etc. For detailed information, see any schedule. 5. 
Many charges can be eliminated by a progressive and long-headed 
property-owner to advantage. He can reduce the charge for open- 
ings by adopting standard shutters. He can close his floor open- 
ings with automatic trap doors. He can cut out the falling wall 
hazard by building higher than his neighbor. He can eliminate the 
exposure charge by buying out or blowing up the exposing prem- 
ises. [Caution — In attaching the dynamite percussion cap to the 
fuse do not chew said cap onto said fuse unless you are prepared 
to be spontaneously ushered into "that new world where light 
and darkness fuse." A few who have thus tampered with sud- 
den death still encumber the earth, but the majority are now 
strolling the by-paths of inflnity like unsolved Chinese puzzles 
trying to collect enough of their integrate parts for positive 
identification at the Golden Gate.] 6. The word "charge" is also 
made use of as a species of profanity in an insurance agency. If 
a man comes in to get a policy and does npt have the money to 
pay the premium the agent tells his cashier to "charge it." If 
the man's credit is no good and the account turns out bad the 
profanity becomes more pronounced but less printable. 
Compare Credit. 



Class t fJ ca '' tion, klas i fi ka' shun, n. [It. elassificasione.l 
1. The asignment of risks into classes or groups according to 
physical similarities. 2. The crystallization of the fruit of ex- 
perience. 3. The scientific system which is the outgrowth of 
primeval chaotic generalities. 4. All large words to the con- 
trary notwithstanding, classification is really a simplification 
of complexities otherwise incomprehensible and confusing. Since 
the advent of classification all stables have had to flock by them- 
selves and survive or perish on their own merits. The same is 
true of school houses, churches, frame dwellings, brick ditto, 
elevators, saw mills, department stores, etc., ad infinitum. By 
classification the underwriter is able to estimate just which 
styles of architecture or species of trade contribute most gener- 
ously to the annual ash pile and which vice versa, and act there- 
upon accordingly. It is thus possible to place advances in rates 

— 34 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



where they will do the most good and probably provoke the 
greatest howl. 

See Preferred Class. 

^'Classification is division 

Of the good risks from the bad — 
A system fair, that shows just where 
The profit's to be had." 

—From Insurance Nursery Rhymes. Page 60. 

Clause, klawz, n. [Afr. clahs, meaning multum in parvo.} 

1. A paragraph or portion of an insurance policy stipulating a 
condition, granting a privilege, waiving a condition, or otherwise 
limiting or broadening the contract. 2. A clause may be a part 
of the original document or may be in the form of slips and at- 
tached thereto by means of Stick Tite Mucilage, Plaster Plastic 
Paste, an international alliance, solar magnetism or any other 
equally adhesive solution or illusion, though whether incorpo- 
rated or simply annexed it is equally an effective part of the con- 
tract. [Note. — If any mucilage brewery with an unassigned ad- 
vertising appropriation wishes to get its name before the cream 
of the mucilage-using public by having the nom de plume of its 
best brew listed with the foregoing renowned adhesives, we are 
in a position to listen to reason. In a listening attitude, as it 
were. This is merely a suggestion.] 

See Blanks, Supplies. 

" A modest little clause in smallest agate type 

Made the thing a wild-cat of most pronounced stripe." 

—From Tilings Are Not Always What They Seem. Canto 
XVIII, about % inch from the bottom of page 147. 

Clear Space, klere spase, n. [From clear, meaning far; 
and space, meaning distance — a far distance (original).] 1. An 
unoccupied space. Not necessarily a vacuum, but a space in 
which there are no buildings or other bits of combustible bric-a- 
brac, such as lumber piles, ash barrels, soap boxes and hay stacks. 

2. A lack of propinquity. 3. A streak of nothing doing. 4. The 
owner of a building well equipped with clear spaces is to be con- 
gratulated, for it receives a favorable discrimination in the rate. 
The clear space idea, however, like other good things, may be 
overdone, and where a building surrounds itself with such an 
abundance of clear space and exclusiveness that even a fire engine 

— 35 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



house can not be found within ten miles, it is called a rural risk 
and is not especially sought after. The conflagration hazard, 
however, does not have to be taken into consideration in such 
cases. On the other hand, a quarter section of land may be so 
overrun with buildings that the clear space feature is entirely 
eliminated. Such a condition is known as a congested district 
and is subject to conflagrations, explosions, holocausts, etc. [See 
same.] It would take considerable ready money to equip some 
buildings with clear spaces — for example, the Rookery, the Tem- 
ple, or other Chicago properties. The same might be said with 
equal truth concerning a number of New York City structures. 

Co-ln sur ' ance, ko-in shur' ans, n. [U. S. co. abv. com- 
'gany; and insurance.l 1. Insurance where two or more share the 
liability in case of loss. 2. A syndicated risk. Naturally popular 
in the twentieth century age of Morganization. 3. Generally ac- 
cepted to imply a proportionate liability assumed by the insured. 
He agrees to carry a certain percentage of insurance (ranging 
from 50 to 100 per cent.), the remaining percentage, whatever it 
may be, he assumes in consideration of a stipulated reduction in 
rate. Co-insurance concessions of this nature were designed to 
check a growing tendency on the part of property-owners to take 
only enough insurance to cover a probable loss, so that a propor- 
tionately small fire would always result in a disproportionately 
large loss to the companies. Oh, yes. They'll learn. Give them 
time. 4. A number of State legislative bodies, either out of the 
fullness of their hearts or in an interim of innocuous desuetude, 
have lent themselves to the favoring of insurance interests by the 
passage of laws permitting the use of co-insurance clauses. Lest 
they see this and repent we hasten to interject that any such 
measures of direct advantage to underwriters return indirectly to 
the insuring public with multiplied advantage. 

See Other Insurance. 

Col Bec'tions, kol lek' shuns, n. (commonly plural). [Of 
Roman ancestry.] 1. The art or the process of chasing in due 
premiums. 2. The barometer which indicates the financial health 
or status of an insurance oflSce. 3. One of the high lights in the 
life of an industrial life insurance agent. The percentage of col- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



lecti,ons always presents an unattainable ideal towards which he 
is daily striving. Most ideals do not demand over 100 per cent, 
for perfection. The ideal of happiness, the ideal of fame, the ideal 
of beauty, the ideal of culinary excellence — none of these are ever 
quoted above 100 per cent.; but the industrial collector becomes 
a miracle worker, often collecting 101, 110, 115 per cent, and even 
more on outstanding premiums. This he accomplishes by antici- 
patory methods, but it is a habit difficult to acquire and easy to 
throw off. 4. An undue sluggishness in collections affects the 
whole plant. Sassafras tea is said to be good to thin the blood. 
It might help collections by being applied to the agent — inter- 
nally. 

Com bined'' Ex per ^ i ence, kom bind' eks pe' ri ens, n. 
1. The merged statistical data of a number of insurance com- 
panies. 2'. The science of furnishing indemnity for specific con- 
tingencies is based upon the laws of chance which approach 
certainty, as the averages used are obtained from the greatest 
possible aggregation of individual cases. Thus insurance com- 
panies have each contributed their knov/ledge gained by experi- 
ence to a common fund, and the information thus obtained has 
given a comparatively safe basis for the calculation of rates. 
In England the Combined Experience or Actuaries' Table of 
Mortality was thus obtained, and in America, the American Ex- 
perience Tables. To the archeological student this will recall 
the bit of wisdom contained in that well-known, but heretofore 
miscredited, proverb of Solomon, "Two heads are better than 
one." 

See Experience. 

"Combined experience is the fools' university." 

—From A Post Graduate. P. 999. 



Com bus ^ tion, kom bus' chon, n. [L. comhustus — com and 
t)ust ws.] 1. The process of oxidation. Sometimes spoken of as 
burning. 2. Oxidation insurance companies, also known as fire 
insurance companies, are organized in many communities to 
make good the financial loss to individuals who have suffered 
from the sudden oxidation of their property. 3. It is a chemical 
process and usually attracts considerable attention. It results 

— 37 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

from the pronounced and unrestricted abandonment of certain 
elements to the gratification of their affinity for ,other elements. 
Like a minister or other authoritative party in a marriage cere- 
mony, it is necessary that oxygen be present in a combustion per- 
formance in order to make the thing a success. (It might also 
be noted right here that either of the two phenomena just men- 
tioned are generally attended with disastrous results and a case of 
katzenjammer.) 4. Spontaneous combustion is a voluntary effort, 
common to such articles as oily rags, matches, volatile oils, 
sweating grain, hay or straw and moral hazards. It is more com- 
mon in valued-policy States than elsewhere and is usually the re- 
sult of carelessness, negligence ,or intent — yes, intent. 5. Combus- 
tion is an irreparable waste of the world's wealth. 
See Bum, Fire. 

Com mis ' sion, kom mish' un, n. [Dagonish, commissione.'] 
1. That portion of a premium which an agent receives as compen- 
sation for his services. 2. Some agents work for the fun of it 
and charitably let the insured have the commission. This style 
of charity is known as rebating and philanthropists of th.is type 
are generally so modest that they will emphatically deny their 
good works. 3. The percentage of the commission varies. In fire 
insurance it ranges from 5 per cent., more or less, to 40 per cent, 
more or less, according to the nature of the risk and the desire of 
some other sect of companies to write it. In life insurance the 
general average per cent, is much higher than in fire insurance. 
This is explained by the fact that fire insurance risks usually ex- 
pire in one to five years and must be solicited for continuation at 
each expiration, while life insurance risks, once written, are sup- 
posed to continue until they become claims. 

See Contingent Commissions, Graded Commissions, Renewal 
Commissions, Rebate. 

"There was a bold son of perdition, 
Always ready to share his commission : 
But the Board learned his game 
And cut out his name — 
He is now an exhausted edition." 

—From Insurance Melodies, Page 81183. 

Com'' pact, n. See Board. 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

Com ^ pact Man ' a ger, kom' pakt man' a jer, n. 1. An un- 
fortunate individual, if he has human feelings, who is ground 
forever between the upper mill-stone (insurance interests) and 
the nether mill-stone (the public). He does not expect or hope 
to please anybody in particular and he is grateful each morning 
when he wakes up and finds that no regulators, during the night, 
have ruthlessly obstructed his breathing apparatus and is hum- 
bly happy each evening when the last mail is in and the day has 
not brought him sudden financial extermination. He puts on a bold 
front of indifference as to regard for what the world at large may 
think of his arbitrary performance of duty, but a friendly smile 
or a glad hand will go to his heart like a ray of sunshine into a 
sick room, although he dares not show his appreciation by shad- 
ing a rate. Altogether a compact manager is but the victim of cir- 
cumstances and does not deserve a personal visitation of social 
ostracism for the faithful execution of his trust. 

Com mun ' i ca ting, adj. Adjoining buildings with openings 
from one to the other and vice versa. A condition which requires 
that the two be rated as one risk. 

See Adjoining. 

Com pe ti ^ tion, kom pe tish' un, n. [L. con, with, and peio, 
to strive after.] 1. The act of striving after in rivalry. 2. The 
spice of trade. 3. Competition, as a business characteristic, is not 
peculiar to underwriting, biit it is so inseparably a part of the 
experience of those engaged in the insurance business that it can 
not, as a word, be omitted from this aggregation. 4, Competition 
is the first caller a new agent entertains; it is the first hazard a 
new company writes. It is ingenious, it is wise. It assumes 
shapes, pleasing or terrifying, with the ease and dispatch of the 
genii which people our recollection of Arabian Nights. It shows 
a smiling face with bewitching eyes and dangerous dimples as it 
tries in a friendly way to lead its victim into heart to heart con- 
fessions which will be capital for it; or it slips through back 
alleys and dark passageways when its "rebate" horns and "twist- 
ing" tail are embarrassingly in evidence. 4. Competition is either 
fair or foul, legitimate or illegitimate. Honest competition gives 
healthy stimulus. Underhanded or questionable methods are 
built on the plan of the boomerang and are more dangerous to 

-39- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



their perpetrators than to the mark (easy or otherwise). 5. Com- 
petition in underwriting is the safety-valve that prevents the rate 
pressure from becoming toO high. The moment the gauge shows 
an abnormal profit the valve pops off and competition queers the 
game. 6. Competition is the trackless void which separates in- 
surance companies from the possibility of forming a trust or mo- 
nopoly. 

Com pet 'I tiv© Rate, kom pet' i tive rate, n. [L. con, with; 
veto, to strive after; reor, to reckon.] 1. A reduced rate granted 
by a rating board to meet outside competition. 2. A weapon of 
defense to be used against pirates. 3. Med. — Fire insurance viva- 
section. A good, live, healthy rate is often cut to pieces just to 
make it look like an imitation rate which happens to be on ex- 
hibition before a susceptible public under the management of a 
transformed gold brick fakir. The fakir presents himself to the 
owner of a large plant and asks to see the fire insurance rate then 
doing duty on the premises. When the legitimate, 24-karat rate 
is brought out and held up to view he elevates his proboscis 
and exhibits a wash-gold affair which he claims is just as good 
and much cheaper. When the property-owner shows a tendency 
to accept the new product the other unfortunate rate is often 
chopped up and remodeled in an attempt to make it acceptable to 
the owner and this refined program of torture is generally con- 
tinued until there is not enough left of either of the rates to pro- 
duce sufficient commission for the price of a postage stamp. A 
rate is sometimes dropped to see how far it will fall without hurt- 
ing it. Such treatment is fatal to its future usefulness. Generally 
after these operations the rate makers repent and attempt to put 
the pieces together again and mend the poor thing; but a com- 
petitive rate much resembles the lamented Humpty Dumpty after 
his sudden descent from the wall. This cruel and dangerous 
practice, fortunately, is losing in favor. 

See Rate War. 

"The heaviest winner in competitive rate contests will prove to be the 
heaviest loser in the end."— From Insurancewise and Otherwise, Page 655. 

Com ^ pound In sur ' ance, 1. A line of insurance which 
is carried by a number of companies. 2. Where, in one property, 
greater values are combined than a single insurance company is 

— 40 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



willing to assume, the insurance is divided among various com- 
panies until the line is covered. In such cases care should be 
taken that the forms on the various policies all agree. An over- 
sight in this respect may result in all sorts of trouble in case of 
a fire. Every property-owner who happens to have a stock of 
compound insurance in his safe should take it out from time to 
time and see if the various policies harmonize — if the parts dove- 
tail neatly, the one in the other, and that no symptoms of fric- 
tion are developing. This little bit of precaution may prevent a 
future lawsuit. 3. Compound insurance is the technical name for 
a collection of insurance policies. As collectors, some men run to 
bird's eggs, some to stamps, some to books, some to warts, some 
to bugs, some to corns, some to insurance policies. When a man 
gets to be a chronic policy collector he is said to have a case of 
"surplus line" or "target risk," either of which is more commend- 
able than comfortable. 4. Compound insurance is common in lif© 
insurance, but that is not what it is called. 

Com ^ pro mise, kom' pro mize, n. [L. compromissum.} 1. 
A settlement of a loss in which concessions are made on each 
side. 2. A draw — both sides agree to quit. 3. It is generally pref- 
erable to a lawsuit and within sight of one. Often, it is true, it 
comes after the lawsuit in the way of a compromise on the judg- 
ment, but then it is to prevent further lawsuits. 4. A compro- 
mise is usually effected after this wise: The adjuster observes 
that the claimant has something to say and he cautiously eases 
up on his strangle hold until sufficient liberty is given the air 
passages to produce a voice. The claimant then expresses a will- 
ingness to accept a smaller amount than he had been demanding. 
The adjuster now suggests: "If you will kindly relinquish your 
death grip on my scalp lock so my eyes will n,ot be so lachry- 
mosely profuse that I can not think, I will consider, though I still 
am inclined to believe that your greed is more noticeable than 
your judgment." After a number of such little interchanges of 
pleasantries and gradual trading of half-Nelsons for dead locks 
and such they finally become separated and, contradicting though 
it may seem, they then get together on a compromise. 

" The man a company most prizes 
Is one who's keen on compromises." 

—Anon. Page 6. 

— 41 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Con ceal ^ ment, [L. con and celo.^ 1. The withholding of 

facts material to the risk. 2. A property-owner sometimes, 
through false modesty, fails to state that his building Is equipped 
with a large high-pressure mortgage; or that he has thought- 
lessly stored a few barrels of gasoline or some other impulsive 
commodity in the cellar; or that he has a neighbor who sits up 
nights, afflicted with a somnambulistic incendiary hysteria of 
which he, the would-be insurer, is the uncomfortable focus; or 
that trade has been poor; or that he saw the new moon over his 
left shoulder, his first robin on the ground,, or a cross-eyed black 
cat; all or any of which harbored secrets, and others of a like im- 
portant nature, are fatal to the effectiveness of the contract. 3. 
A property-owner who holds a policy covering a risk afflicted 
with a concealment often wonders what ails his pillow or why his 
feather bed feels like a rockpile. 4. Concealments usually become 
revealments when exposed to intense heat. 
See Fraud, Misrepresentation. 

"Concealment is the worm that gnaws 
In secret. Fair though its face, 
The contract 's of scant grace." 

—From The King of the Kaw. Act III, Scene 3. 

Con cur '' rent, ken kur' rent, n. [It. concor rente.'] 1. He 
or that which concurs. 2. Harmonize; rhyme; are similar in 
wording and intent. 3. A most important point of consideration 
where two or more policies c.over the same property. If they are 
not concurrent a fire will give the lawyers a job and the chance 
to take the amounts expressed on the face of the documents as 
payable to said John Doe, or whoever it may be. 

See Compound Insurance. 

Con fla gra ^ tion, n. [L. conflagratio.'] 1. A great fire 

spreading over wide territory. 2. Fires in their incipiency are 
like babies, you never know what they will grow to be. Among 
the latter one is unable to sort out the future poets, artists, doc- 
tors, presidents, insurance agents or other illustrious phenomena 
from the common run of plain, every-day members of the vulgar 
herd. So it is with the youthful conflagration. Therefore, the 
firemen who wait upon it, not being able to distinguish it from 
the "nominal loss" type, proceed to extinguish it if possible. All 

-42 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

fires are naturally imbued with, a desire to be great, but few are 
able to overcome the many discouragements a young fire is cer- 
tain to meet with in a large city. All fires can not become con- 
flagrations any more than all men can hope to be poets or insur- 
ance agents. 3. His Royal Highness Nero once conducted a suc- 
cessful conflagration. It is said to have been planned as an ac- 
companiment to a classical little air he had composed entitled 
"There'll be a Hotus Tempus in the Old Townibus Tonightibus, 
You Betibus," and which he rendered with great feeling during 
the progress of the flames. The air is popular to this day and 
H. R. H. Nero could make good money if he would turn it into 
a vaudeville sketch and tour the American continent; but from 
the last reports it is supposed that he is filling an engagement in 
a continuous performance where conflagrations never cease. 4. 
Next to H. R. H. Nero Mrs. O'Leary and her brindle cow take the 
cake as conflagration specialists. With these artists doing time 
in the great unknown beyond it is sincerely to be hoped by the 
world at large that no genius or genii will arise to snatch their 
laurels. 5. A number of quite pretentious conflagrations have 
gained recognition in the past few years, proving that this fea- 
ture is not filed away with the lost arts, the dead languages or 
the question of the free and unlimited emancipation of the white 
metal. 6. In rate making a loading of a certain per cent, is us- 
ually allowed for the conflagration hazard. It is estimated that 
1,000 years' experience will demonstrate whether this is too much 
or not enough. If the period of probation does not hurry up and 
expire many of the fire insurance companies will. 
See Fire. 

Con gest ' ed Dis ' trict, ' kon jest' ed dis' trikt, n. [L. con, 
with; gero, gestus, to bear; distingo, to stretch out.] 1. The 
center, or that part, of a town which is densest because of socio- 
logical gravitation. The laws of gravitation controlling masses 
demand that the center of a group or conglomeration shall be 
densest, graduating towards the outer surface or suburbs. 2. An 
aggregation of exposures. 3. Congested districts are peculiar to 
cities, seldom being encountered in uninhabited regions. They 
may be easily recognized, even by an unscientific eye, from the 
general and exceeding proximity of buildings and the apparent 
efforts of two or more structures to stand on the same lot at the 

-43- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



same time. 4. Chronic cases of congestion have resulted in sub- 
cellars, sky-scrapers, elevated railroads, sub-ways, tunnels, drop- 
ping elevators, aspiring manhole lids, conflagrations, water- 
towers, aerial ladders, standpipes, the falling-wall hazard, rub- 
ber necks and roof gardens. There seems to be no cure for it. 
See New York, Chicago and Farmersburg, Ind. 

Con se quen ' tial-Dam'age, kon se kwen' shal-dam' age, n. 
[Inadvertently compounded one day in the late lamented century 
and confounded ever since.] 1. A loss or damage resulting in 
consequence of a fire. A common example is the loss occurring in 
a cold storage plant which has been crippled by a fire in its re- 
frigerating department. The importance of this hazard was le- 
gally, emphatically and everlastingly called to the attention of 
fire underwriters by the fire in the Dold pork joint at Omaha, 
Nebr., in 1900. Since then, packing-house forms have been reno- 
vated to eliminate this liability and any hog artist now desiring 
indemnity along this line must buy it in separate packages. 2. 
There are other varieties of consequential-damage besides the 
foregoing. A fire in a street-railway power-house may tie up the 
service, causing a fond mother-in-law to miss the train that was 
to take her to her daughter's to spend a week or six months. 
This kind seldom results in the filing of proofs of loss — never by 
the son-in-law. A fire in a glue caterer's parlors may deprive a 
community of the exhilarating aroma customarily surrounding 
such places and results in a certain depreciation of property. 
Claims in such cases should be filed in the names of ten or more 
property-owners. [Mo. Rev. St., chap, mcxviii, page 971.] These 
few examples must suffice, because a complete list would be as 
voluminous as a record of the proceedings of a naval court of 
inquiry. 3. The term is often abbreviated conveniently by elimi- 
nating all but the next to the last syllable. 

Con ' tents, kon'tents, n. W. U. 1. I. 2. C. 1. E. 1. S. 2. 

W. 1. (Don't worry about these initials. They refer to other dic- 
tionaries.) 1. That which is contained in a building and is not a 
part of the structure. The nature of the contents is often deter- 
mined by the occupancy; in fact, quite often. If a building is oc- 
cupied by a planing mill an underwriter expects that, most likely, 

— 44 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



there will be lumber and wood-working machinery somewhere 
about the place. If it is occupied by a department store it will 
contain everything under the sun that will burn. If occupied by 
a Chinese laundry it will contain some dirty linen, ditto China- 
men and a pipe joint. If occupied by a fly-by-night cut-rate cloth- 
ing emporium it will contain a shoddy stock of goods and a bad- 
smelling moral hazard. And so on through the list of classifica- 
tions. 2. Another good way to discover the contents of a build- 
ing has been adopted by a progressive agent out in Denver — his 
method is to go and see the risk. The idea is not patented and 
any agent may use it without fear of prosecution. 3. The contents 
of a fireproof building can make it a fire-trap. 
Compare, Occupancy. 

"As nature abhors a vacuum, so an insurance company abhors a building 
withont contents.^' From ^ Graft or a Profession. Page 9999. 



Con tin '' gent Com mis^ sion, kon tin' gent kom mi' shun, 
n. [Idiom.] 1. A commission or reward given in event of a 
specified contingency as to amount of premiums collected or the 
altitude of the loss ratio. 2. A bonus. 3. A stimulant to in- 
dustry and care. An agent working under the inspiration of a 
contingent commission hates to sit down or stand still. He 
feels that moments are precious, that time is money, that no 
matter how fast he goes he is always leaning back against some- 
thing sharp and insistent. 4. A worthy incentive to make an 
agent take a personal interest in every risk he writes. 5. Some- 
thing to make December the shortest month in the year if he 
has not already qualified before its advent. In which case the 
agent is reminded that this is a strenuous life. An agent 
equipped with a contingent commission will wear out the soles 
of his shoes faster than the seat of his trousers, barring bull- 
dogs and other accidents. 

Compare Bonus. 

Con ^ tract, kon' trakt, n. [L. con and traJio.l 1. A formal 
agreement, verbal or in writing, between two parties. 2. An in- 
surance policy is often referred to as an "insurance contract" or 
as a "policy contract." It is also referred to as the "best ever," 
"the latest," "up-to-date," and occasionally to a lawyer. 3. Ad 

— 45- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



agreement between an insurance company and its representative 
as to the terms of compensation which the former will grant the 
latter in return for services rendered. Such a contract is said by 
some connoisseurs to be as fragile as Haviland ware. Broken 
contracts are used to file suits on, and are much sought after by 
lawyers. 4. Figuratively — something that may be entered into. 
Caution: It is well for the entrant to keep his eyes wide open 
during the process, since the entrance to a contract is generally 
much more conspicuous than the exit, and many a poor victim 
has found himself hopelessly tied up in a skin-game contract, 
the exits to which were all entrances — like a rat-trap. 

" Is dat wot de contract calls fer? 
Say, I stands pat on de contract ! See ! " 

—From De Merchant of de Bowery. Scene II, Act V. 

Con tii bu ^ ti©it, kon tri' bu' shun, n. [L. contributio.'] 
1. The act ,of contributing. 2. The proportion or share of a loss 
which one company bears where several are implicated. 3. In 
classical phraseology,- "the roll which a company is called upon 
to cough up." 4. Fire insurance companies, those alleviators 
of human distress, are not charitable institutions, and the act 
of contributing solace to some pwner of an ash heap is n6t al- 
ways a voluntary performance, but is consummated, at times, 
only through the earnest advice and encouragement of some 
court of law. They are willing enough to contribute where the 
claim is undoubtedly fair, but if there is any reason to believe 
that it is not a square deal they hump up their backs and get 
obstinate, and will not shell out until they are forced to. 

Cor por a ^ tion, kor por a' shun, n. [L. corpus, a body.] 
1. A body without a soul. 2. An incorporated institution, ordi- 
narily financial, for the transaction of business. Composed of 
individuals as partners or stockholders. 3. The business of un- 
derwriting is most satisfactorily carried on by corporations 
through which it secures financial strength, stability and perpe- 
tuity, otherwise impossible. 4. Though a corporation presents a 
community of interests, the more successful and the more wide- 
spreading a corporation may become, the more is it denounced by 
those community specialists called anarchists, of whatever 
shades of intensity. In anarchial parlance "corporation" rhymes 
with "damnation." 5. A corporation of corporations is a trust. 

— 46- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Cov^er, kuv' er, v. t. [Slav. 7cover.'\ 1. To place insurance 
on a line. 2. One of the first things a man attends to when he 
erects or secures a piece of combustible property is to get it cov- 
ered with insurance — most men. He may be of an economical 
bent and get only enough to cover a part of it, while the rest 
sticks out around and is exposed to the elements. Insurance 
companies encourage the public to cover generously by means of 
co-insurance clauses. [See same.] Again, in some States where 
the climate is favorable, property-owners go t,o the other extreme 
and put on several layers of insurance, letting the edges hang 
over. A valued policy [see same] atmospheric condition is re- 
sponsible for such marked precautions. 

Cov^er, n. 1. A canvas or tarpaulin used by a salvage corps 
to protect goods from damage by water, smoke and fire. 2. Cov- 
ers are not remarkable for their delicacy of texture. Any one 
who has attempted to substitute a cover absent-mindedly for a 
pocket handkerchief has not been long ignorant of his mistake. 
It is reported that a prominent underwriter who was on his way 
to a banquet was delayed by encountering a fire which was lick- 
ing up, as it were, a stock of goods on which his company haj^ a 
policy. With most commendable spirit he at once lent a hand to 
the insurance patrol boys who were spreading covers over the 
goods on the first floor. He stayed until he saw that his services 
were no longer quoted at par and then proceeded to the banquet- 
ting hall. A little hostler work on the part of a porter made him 
presentable and when he entered the hall nothing betrayed his 
escapade but an extremely audible ,odor of burnt feathers. As 
shop talk was barred (this sounds suspicious, but it so appears 
in the original), he took his seat without evoking comment. He 
was on the program and in his turn gracefully arose in response 
to a witty introduction by the toastmaster. As he progressed 
with his remarks he became somewhat heated, and, reaching into 
the bosom of his low-cut vest, he drew forth one of the salvage 
corps covers and mopped his face. He was too absorbed in his 
subject to notice the substitution, but quite a number present did 
and remarked upon it afterwards. 

Cred^'it, n. [U. S. credit.] 1. An allowance granted in 
schedule rating for a condition or circumstance which reduces 

— 47 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

the fire hazard. 2. Antithetically opposed to a "charge." 3. The 
more credits a risk can claim the lower will be the rate. Credits 
are allowed for iron doors, sprinkler equipment, fire walls, water 
buckets and barrels (filled), elevator trap dpors, metal window 
shutters, fire extinguishers, hose (note — not hoes), stand pipes 
(tobacco pipes come under "charge"), insomniac night watchman, 
clear spaces, immediate juxtaposition to fire plugs and fire depart- 
ment houses, etc. For further details see a schedule. Credits are 
seldom overlooked — by the property-owner. He often gener.ously 
calls attention to some of an imaginative type. 4. Credit also 
applies to a charitable habit common to insurance agents of pay- 
ing their clients' premiums and then earning them over in the 
collection. No agent can aff,ord to indulge too deeply in this style 
of philanthropy or he will be a patient in the bankruptcy dispen- 
sary in due time. 5. Credit is one of those kind of gifts that it is 
more blessed to receive than to give. 6. An agent can afford to be 
generous with his public spirit, glad hand, hot air, blotters, cal- 
endars and other office furniture, but npt with credit. 
Compare Charge. 

"It is better to give credit than to lose it." . 

—From Insurance Proverbs. Ch. IV, 2. 



Ctss ^ tomer, kus' turn er, n. [From an Egyptian hiero- 
glyphic meaning j,oy.] 1. One who or that which buys insur- 
ance. 2. In life or accident insurance it is called an applicant. 
[See same.] 3. Customers are as necessary to an insurance office 
as the foundation to a house. A house without a foundation of 
some kind is known in architectural chirography as an air- 
castle and is not rated high; an insurance office without custom- 
ers ,of some kind is, agriculturally speaking, a frost, and will 
not cut a wide swath in the field of time. 4. Customers are sel- 
dom voluntary; they have to be cultivated. 5. Every community 
presents much raw material from which customers can be made. 
The agent must discriminate, however, as to what he selects. 
An individual, to be available as a customer, must possess prop- 
erty which is liable to burn and a willingness to listen to the 
agent. The fact that all property owners are n,ot customers of 
insurance companies should not be laid at the door of the agents. 
They do whom — they do what they can. 

-48 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Cut, kut, V. and n. [Sans. kutta.'\ 1. To reduce. Often re- 
fers to reduction in a rate effected by a surgical operation on the 
commission, euphoniously known as a rebate. Judging from com- 
mon report there are very many maimed rates accepted in lieu ,of 
the whole thing. An agent who makes a specialty of such crip- 
ples is usually dependent upon some invisible means of support. 
2. Cuts are not confined to rates, as there are cuts in salaries, cuts 
in commissions, cuts in expenses, cuts in dividends, cuts in inter- 
est rates and so on. Then there is fine cut, upper cut et al., but 
they have no special identity as insurance terms, though closely 
allied with the business as favorite f,orms of approach and argu- 
ment. 

See Rate War. 



D 



Dai ' ly-Re port ', da' 11-re port', n. [A. S. daeglic; L. reporto. 
The harmonious union between these two incongruous foreign 
words is but another evidence of American cosmopolitanism.] 
1. A form among the supplies furnished by a fire insurance com- 
pany on which its agent submits his report of each policy on the 
day it is written. Besides an exhaustive set of questions con- 
cerning the risk, it contains a checker-board looking diagram on 
which the agent is supposed to draw a graphical representation 
of the risk and its exposures. 2. In localities where there is a 
stamping secretary, the daily-reports of all agents go through his 
hands to prevent mutilation of rates. 3. Each daily-report, when 
it reaches the home office, receives as much careful attention as 
a visiting millionaire bachelor uncle provokes in the homes of 
his nephews and nieces. Occasionally the examiner, while sizing 
up the daily consignment, will suddenly burst into a cold perspi- 
ration and send a hurry-up telegram to the agent to cancel one of 
the policies reported upon. This usually occurs when, in a fit of 
abstraction, the agent has doubled a line on a planing-mill or 
some similar hazard. 4. Next to the policy itself the daily-report 
is the most important piece of paper an agent handles. 

See Blanks. 

"Daihj reports should be prepared accurately, plainly and neatly." 

—From First Steps in Underivriting. Second Step. 
I.D.-4. _49_ 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Dam ' age, n. [L. damnum, harm; ago, to do.] 1. The prop- 
erty value destroyed in a partial-loss fire. 2. The difference ob- 
tained by subtracting the salvage from the sound value. 3. Th© 
part the insurance companies buy. 4. Another name for smoke, 
ashes and charcoal. 5. It will be noted that this word has the 
same ancestry as a certain other word pf unsavory reputation and 
common disrepute, while "damage" itself hplds an honored place 
in the conversation of polite society — an eloquent tribute to the 
broad principles of persona libertas which underlie the English 
language. Thus a word is recognized solely upon its own merits, 
and is not handicapped because it has a cousin who frequents 
sal,oons, barrel-houses and golf links. Doubtless but few persons 
were aware of the relationship until now. Those who are en- 
lightened will certainly exercise their generosity and not here- 
after discriminate against this most honorable and self-made 
word because of unfortunate family relationships over which it 
has no control. [Maybe you are wondering what kind of a prin- 
ciple a "persona libertas" is; ye scribe admits that there are oth- 
ers also wondering.] See Loss, Salvage. 

De ben ^ tiare, de ben' chur, n. [L. dehentur, there are 
owing, 3d per. pi. pres. ind. pass, of deheo, owe, so called from 
the first word of such receipts in former times. (At least that's 
what the Standard says about it.)]. 1. A contract resembling a 
bond, which is given as evidence ,of a debt, is secured by a spe- 
cific fund and bears interest. 2. Some life insurance companies 
issue so-called debenture policies, which provide that, at the 
maturity of the contract, there be issued, in lieu of cash, a de- 
benture bond. In this way the beneficiary is prevented from 
losing the wad on horse races, wheat, gold bricks or shell game 
rackets. 3. The debenture bond wrist, which results from an 
overindulgence in couppn clipping, is not as common as the 
ping-pong wrist, or the automobile ankle, which is caused by 
continued practice in dodging these modern, exterminators. 

Deb '' it, n. [L. dehitum.l 1. A list of accounts or policy- 
holders under the individual care of an industrial life insurance 
agent. 2. An industrial agent's "row to hoe." 3. The entire 
debit must be visited each week tf> make the premium collec- 

— 50 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



tions except where choice individuals have paid so far in ad- 
vance that they do not need special attention. 4. A properly 
cultivated debit will outgrow the agent's capacity and has then 
to be divided. Where one policy gets into a house it is often 
soon followed by another and another until the whole family 
is insured. 5. The wise agent strives to win the affections of 
every family on his debit-^and their dogs. It is rather annoying 
and unsatisfactory to attempt to collect a premium from the 
elevation of a gate post to the accompaniment of a canine ex- 
temporare obligato, or whatever they call it. Another notice- 
able thing about debits is the lack of elevators. Few debits are 
equipped, no matter how tall they may be in spots, and some 
of them strike high altitudes in July and August. Some debits, 
top, are so cosmopolitan that a college linguist could not collect 
the complete quota in its full variety of jargons. Such debits are 
common in large cities. 

" The agent on this debit, say, 
That chap is mighty clerer 
If 'ary premiutu I'd not pay 

He'd keep coming back forever." 

—From The Debit. V. 7. 

De ferred^ Div ^ i dend, [L. defero and dividendum.l 1. A 
dividend which is deferred. 2. A dividend which the company 
retains in its custody for fear the person to whom it belongs will 
spend it foolishly. Some companies defer dividends longer than 
others. Assessment companies make a feature of deferred divi- 
dends. Many of them have shown remarkable fortitude in this 
respect, and the time-keepers, or receivers, as they are techni- 
cally called, inform an interested populace that the deferring 
process is liable t,o continue indefinitely ad infinitum. That's a 
long time, to say the least, and such behavior might be criticised 
with some foundation as somewhat overdoing the matter. An- 
other trouble with these concerns is that they often develop a 
habit of deferring the payment of death claims as well. It seems 
to grow on them. Of c,ourse, the beneficiary is prevented from 
spending the money for food, clothing and other foolish ex- 
travagances, but the human animal does not enjoy being patron- 
ized, subsidized and victimized by whatever process it may be 
accomplished. 3. Old-line companies which defer dividends argue 
that they can make them accumulate and multiply so that when 

— 51 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



they revert in time to their .owner he will hardly know them. 
(But don't worry; he'll accept them without question, on faith.) 
See Debenture, Dividend, Tontine, etc. 

"A dividend deferred indefinitely maketh the heart sick." 

Anon. Chap. Ill, v. 6. 

De fi ^ cien cy, n. [L. deflcio.'] 1. A flaw. 2. Below stand- 
ard. 3. In schedule rating the physical conditions in a risk 
which fall below the standard assumed as the basis, and those 
which add to the hazard are called deficiencies and are penalized 
by additions to the rate. [Note. — As a tip t,o the property- 
owner, who, however, will probably never in very great num- 
bers be fortunate enough to peruse this authoritative work, it 
might be timely to suggest that it always pays to be kind and 
hospitable to the inspector who examines your plant, but, as 
you squander your choice cigars on him, do not imagine that 
they will superinduce a sudden attack of myopia and that he 
will overlook the deficiencies. Of course, such kindness may 
prevent him from an unnecessary display of imaginative ability 
and a disposition to mistake mole hills for mountains; but he 
has to go on record for what he says and d,oes in regard to ,each 
risk he inspects, and some little slighted deficiency is liable to 
take revenge on him by burning the place down; furthermore, 
he receives a princely salary and is amply able to provide him- 
self with most of the absolute necessities of life.] 4. A defi- 
ciency in a life insurance risk usually results in rejection, but 
the applicant is sometimes accepted as a sub-standard life. [See 
same.] 

See Charge, Defect. 

Demot^alizer, n. [Sp. demoralizar.J 1. Zool. — A herbiv- 
erous and carniverous biped of the family Ego-omnibus Aliabee- 
damnibus of the genus homo. It frequents the haunts of other 
species of the genus homo, and, in truth, much resembles them. 
Phrenologists and barbers maintain that a specimen is readily 
to be distinguished by those who are onto the undulations of 
the human cranium by the marked protuberancy of the bumps 
of combativeness, secretiveness, self-interest and prevarication, 
and the bottomless pits that mark those topographical locations 
commonly frequented by the commendable elevations which sig- 

— 52— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



nify an affectionate regard fpr others, love of home, probity and 
religious fervor. Altogether, a demoralizer might be classed 
with locusts, army worms, mosquitoes, legislators and other 
pests. 2. Most insurance communities have had a demoralizer, 
have one or are going to have one if they don't watch put. One's 
a plenty, but, where they appear in numbers more exalted, the 
locality which is affected with their presence is not likely to suf- 
fer seriously from ennui. This condition might appropriately be 
described in the same terms with which Sherman defined "war." 
3. A demoralizer is the underwriting cause of friction. The rem- 
edy is usually as thusly: Take three quarts of concentrated 
fine, C. P., and dissolve in a vinegar barrel of ostracism. With 
this, spray the demoralizer just as he is going to roost, and he 
will be discovered curled up in a piece of brown paper under his 
perch when the sun rises — maybe. If this is not effectual, try 
another dose and write for the special agents. 4. Demoralizers 
occur in all classes of underwriting and in all sexes, and are 
always equally beloved. 

See Rebater, Twister and the black lists. 

" Demoralizers make the most 

Of the present situation, 
Regardless what the deed may cost 
In future consternation." 

—From Art Owed to Mars. Canto X. 

De pre ci a ^ tlon, de pre she a' shun, n. [LL. depretiatus.'] 

1. The act of depreciating pr the state of being depreciated. 

2. In a fire insurance risk, the effects of the ravages of time. 
However substantially man may build, nature is surely but 
certainly pulling down his structure from the moment of its 
completion. The chemical action of sun, air, moisture and gases 
begins the work of disintegration. Gravity exercises its pull 
with a determination, untiring perseverance and fixity of pur- 
pose which might well be emulated by the most ardent ppliti- 
cian. The atmosphere sits down on the affair at the rate of 
fifteen pounds to the square inch, and it takes a pretty substan- 
tial proposition to stand up under such a combination of dis- 
couragements. It is only a matter of time until the best will 
be entirely eliminated. 3. Insurance companies make note pf 
this tendency to depreciate in rates and contracts. 4. In life 

-53- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



insurance, risks also depreciate, and with more uniformity than 
in fire insurance, so that it is possible to allow most accurately 
for this fact,or. [Note. — Depreciation is a slow process. A sud- 
den disintegration and dispersion t,o the four quarters of the 
universe which attends the centerpiece in a gas explosion can 
hardly with accuracy be termed a depreciation, although 
there is a pronounced reduction in values.] 

De tached^, do tacht', adj. [P. detach€r.'\ 1. Separated 

from. 2. Disconnected. 3. A risk is said to be detached when it 
is fully equipped with clear spaces. 4. The exposure hazard is 
greatly reduced and the risk is rated on its own inherent merits 
or deficiencies. 

Antonym, Adjoining. 

"On one side was a powder mill, 

A gas works on the other— 
A match was scratched 

The risk'* detached- 
High rates are no more bother." 

— From Upward and Onward. V. 5. 

De te '^ ri o rate* v. i. See Depreciation. 

De vice'', [LL. devisa.'] 1. A contrivance, generally mechan- 
ical, designed to interfere with the progress of a fire or other- 
wise defeat its purpose. 2. Numerous devices of this kind have 
been developed by the human brain and recognized by the patent 
office. As to usefulness, they may be separated into three groups 
—good, bad and indifferent. As to construction or behavior, 
they are either automatic or manumatic. The chief difficulty 
with the former is their great scope of imagination and native 
timidity, while the latter often fall short of expectations because 
no one knows the location of the trigger or push button with 
which to put it into effect. 

See Automatic. 

DV a gram, n. [L. diagramma.'] 1. A plan or outline of a 
risk, showing the surroundings and relative proportions. 2. Most 
fire insurance agents are diagram artists and each day produce a 
number of masterpieces on the backs of daily reports. Prom aa 

— 54— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



aesthetic standpoint, a diagram would hardly produce an ecstatic 
thrill in the most keenly observant and responsive artistic soul. 
A diagram, in fact, is but the skeleton of a picture. Skeletons 
are seldom handsome. Most of us would find our beauty some- 
what marred if we were compelled to go about in our exposed 
and unembellished framework. But this should not discourage 
the insurance agent or induce him to cease drawing diagrams and 
cause him to attempt to make an oil painting of every risk that 
he writes. The diagram is much more useful and no home oflBce 
is large enough or willing to become an art museum or a chamber 
of horrors. 

Compare Map. 

Dis tri bu ^ tion Pe ' ri od, n. [Graeco-Roman.] 1. A stipu- 
lated division of time during which dividends or other features 
of like or dissimilar nature may accumulate and at the end of 
which revert to the proper and legitimate party in interest. 2. 
Life insurance pension day. 3. Some policies are so constructed 
that the excess premium is payable annually, some "distribute" 
every five years, some ten, some at the maturity of the policy, 
and some never. There is a strain in human nature which rel- 
ishes surprises, and so the distribution period idea is popular. A 
man takes a policy calling for a certain premium each year and 
having a distribution period alcove on the south front. He pays 
his premium each year and forgets all about the distribution 
period feature — never had any particular faith in it, anj'^way. He 
can not conceive that a life insurance company would deliberately 
give back money on which it has once placed its hooks. So when 
he receives notice at the end of the fifth year that his policy has, 
by economy and thrift, saved up enough money to pay the next 
premium, which he can use for that purpose, or can apply to paid- 
up insurance, or can place as an offering on the altar of compound 
insurance, or that he can take the cash and get his wife a seal- 
skin sacque, he is invariably astonished, and for the first time 
realizes that his insurance is a good thing. A man who has safely 
passed one distribution period and convalesced is almost certain 
to become a chronic insurer. The novelty of getting back money 
that has once been paid out causes such an unaccustomed thrill 
that he takes a new interest in things and lives in lively anticipa- 
tion of the next d. p. 

— 55— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

Div ' i dend, n. [L. dividendus, gerundive of divido, divide.^ 
Life insurance. — 1. A misnomer, but generally accepted to imply 
the excess premium returned by life insurance companies. 2. Tlie 
mai'gin of safety charged by old-line life insurance companies 
above the actual cost of insurance. 3. The radical difference be- 
tween old-line life insurance and assessmentism is that in the 
former the charge is too much and in the latter not enough. In 
the former the balance is adjusted by returning the overcharge in 
so-called dividends; in the latter it is adjusted through receiver- 
ships and in the courts. In the first the insured wears a pleasant 
smile during the operation; in the other he grits his teeth and 
says things. 4. The receipt of a dividend is like unto the getting 
of money from home. 

Compare, Return-Premium. 

" I*o, the insurance dividend), 
It warmeth the heart- 
Be it more or be it less, 
The uncertainty is the spice of it." 
—From Do, Do, My Huckleberry, Do. Act I. Scene 4. 

Doub ^ le In sur -' ance, dub' le in shur' ans, n. [EVpm a 
bunch of Greek do-dads meaning two-fold and the old French 
word enseurer.] 1. Over insurance. 2. Some insure their prop- 
erty on the theory that if a little is good more is better. This 
expression of over zeal is common among a certain class of citi- 
zens who are always expecting a fire and often have their expec- 
tations realized. 3. Double insurance is worse than gasoline as a 
cause of fire. Perhaps it might be stated more correctly, that the 
fire causes the double insurance. You ask, how can something 
which is to be produce effects or educe profections while it yet is 
not? 'Tis strange, yet so it is. The mysterious working of the 
human mind overwhelms the mind itself. In the course of his 
daily round, a man is sometimes led to step aside long enough to 
place double insurance on his property simply because a pint of 
tissue and gray matter in the dome of his cranium advises him to 
do so in response to a faculty for foresight and a nose which can 
smell smoke three months in the untried future. This rare abil- 
ity is often rewarded by the State which, in well established 
cases, provides board and lodging for the gifted persons. 3. 
Double insurance is a notable product of valued-policy States. 

— 56 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Dwell ' ing, n. [A. S. dwellan.'\ 1. The nest or habitation 
of the human animal, in which a pair, after mating, rears its 
young. As to its structure, refer to "building." Dwellings are 
generally designed for the accommodation of but ,one or two 
families, though financial stringency, stress of circumstances 
and other constricting influences common to human life often 
necessitate a departure from the original intent. However, the 
human animal is becoming more gregarious, and is combining 
many dwellings under ,one roof in edifices known as flat build- 
ings. [Which same see.] 2. Dwellings are ordinarily combusti- 
ble structures, though occasionally a fireproof specimen is dis- 
covered. Such are usually occupied by a certain breed (humanus 
aristocraticuss) of the animal which is distinguished by a marked 
elevation of the nose and a bluish cast in the blood. 3. Insur- 
ance on dwellings is generally written for terms of three or flvo 
years. 4. At present rates and fr,om past exj^erience dwellinga 
are listed as a preferred class. 

See Building, Flat Building. 



E 



E lee trie' i ty, e lek tris' i ti, n. [ScsLndihooYian aleqtrws- 
ki, meaning sudden, unexpected; also (idiom.) previous.] 1. In a 
commercial sense, chained lightning. 2. A fluid which soaks 
through a solid metal tube at the rate of one hundred eighty-odd 
thousand miles per second, a gigantic force which is bound by a 
thread that a child can break, an annihilator of space, a servant 
of man which is always ready to go on a strike. It has other 
aliases which may be observed in the graduating essays of high- 
school savants and other standard works. 3. Fire underwriters 
have studied its habits with great solicitude. It is always liable 
to spring aleak and in this is its hazard. It does not leak in drops 
on the floor and smear itself around until some one discovers it 
and turns it off. No, it leaks in blue blazes, green lightning and 
a pyrotechnic display, and at the rate of 10,000,000 volts, technic- 
ally speaking, per instant. The spirit of such a performance is 

— 57 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



very catching to surrounding objects of a combustible disposition. 
It is authentically estimated that quite a number of fires originate 
from electric leakage every season. 4. It is also used for lighting. 
Fifteen candle-power of electric radiance, corked up in a little 
brass necked bottle, encouraged with sufficiently contiguous in- 
flammable surroundings, will start as great a fire as a Chicago cow 
and a two-candle-power lantern. 5. Electricity is also of interest 
to life and accident underwriters because of its playful disregard 
for the sacredness of human life. The long lists of casualties from 
this cause are quite shocking. [Vainly attempted to insulate 
that word from this definition, but it short circuited in spite of 
me. — Lexicographer. ] 

" For ways that are dark, 
And for tricks that are vain, 
Eledtricitee' is peculiar." 

—From Bulletin No. CCm57, N. B. U. 

En dorse^, v. t. [ L. in and dorsum.'] 1. To write an ap- 
proval or permission upon a policy granting some change affect- 
ing the risk to which must be signed the name of an officer or 
other authorized person. 

En dorse ^ ment, n. A superscription on an insurance pol- 
icy granting some change affecting the risk. By an endorsement 
a policy upon a piece of property may be transferred from seller 
to buyer without affecting the validity of the contract and other 
such convenient changes or alterations may be accomplished. 

En dow ^ ment Pol'icy, en dou' ment por i si, n. [L. doto; 
It. poUzza.'] 1. A life insurance policy contract combining in- 
surance and investment. 2. Insurance against the ills and ter- 
rors of old age. 3. A policy in which the insured is the real 
beneficiary and with which he must live to win. 4. A special 
favorite v/ith the young man, as it takes his money when he has 
not sense nor experience enough to take care of it or appreciate 
it and returns it to him with accumulations after he has learned 
proper respect for the dollar, singular or plural, or its compo- 
nent parts. His only regret upon its maturity is that the 
amount was not doubled in the beginning. 5. Something to live 
for. 6. Scien. — The crystallization of surplus production, the 
storing of financial energy to become available in some future 

— 58 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



hour of need. 7. An expression of wise foresight and a prac- 
tical faith in the future. 

"An endowment policy matured, dear 

Will make our future assured, dear 
We'll live year by year 

Without dread or fear 
And by death we'll ne'er be allured, dear." 
— From How to Make Love and Other Mistakes. Page 258. 

E quipped^ Risk, n. 1. A risk which is equipped with 
sprinklers. 

See Sprinkler Equipment. 

Ex am i na' tion, n. [L. examinatio.'] 1. An investigation of 
an insurance company's financial state of health, generally by a 
licensed member of the State insurance board of health, 2. An 
authorized probing into the interior anatomy or clock works of 
an insurance organism. 3. Some examinations are conducted for 
the good of the company, some for the benefit of its policyholders 
and some for the financial aggrandizement of the examiner. The 
first are rare enough to excite comment and occur when a com- 
pany, for some reason or other, has been overlooked in the shuf- 
fle and desires to receive a clean bill of health for advertising pur- 
poses. The second are really the most important and the truly 
legitimate variety. The third is sufficiently common to be scan- 
dalous. An examiner of this breed is not worried because he fears 
that the company's expense account may have sprung aleak, or 
that the reinsurance reserve may have become pied with the re- 
serve for other liabilities, or that the cash in bank has accident- 
ally become cash in hand; all he wants to know is whether they 
will "cough up" a one-hundred or a five-hundred dollar fee, or 
stand the expense of a real examination, running up — well, any- 
where from five to fifty thousand dollars. This style of examina- 
tion is also known as hold-up, raiding, etc. 

See Insurance Commissioner. 

Except^ed Cit^y, n. 1. A city not under the jurisdiction 
of the Union. 2. There are five such in the Mississippi Valley, to- 
wit: Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Louisville. It 
will thus be observed that "excepted city" and "holy city" are 
not synonymous terms. The reason that these cities were ex- 
cepted is quite evident. The main tent was crowded without 

— 59- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



them and they are a whole show by themselves. The chief char- 
acteristic of excepted cities is bad water and a high expense ac- 
count. 

Expect 'an cy, n. [L. ex, from; specto, to look.] 1. That 
which is expected. 2. In life underwriting, the anticipation of re- 
sults from mortality tables and other prophetic paraphernalia 
connected with the business. 3. The actual experience and the 
expectancy seldom come out even. Anomaly though it may seem, 
the ruling spirits of the company do not expect them to. As to 
death rate and loss payments the actuary who brewed the pre- 
mium rates is pleased to see them fall short of his prognostica- 
tions. The death rate is more likely to be thus accommodating 
than the loss payments — undoubtedly a matter of selection result- 
ing from the instinct which actuates a robust, vigorous and desir- 
able risk, in his self-confidence, to take small policies, and tha 
weaker, less desirable, though passable risk, in his self-conscious- 
ness, to load up with as much insurance as he can handle. 3. The 
importance of expectancy in life underwriting can not be gainsaid 
for the business deals directly with futures. 4. Expectancy is the- 
ory; experience is practice. 5. In assessmentism a large, attrac- 
tive, hand-painted expectancy was wont to be held up before a 
gaping and gullible public and many bit; but with the passing of 
the seasons the action of the elements and Providence so defaced 
these imitation works of art that they are no longer so popular as 
interior decorations. 

See Experience; Mortality Tables; etc. 



Ex pense', n. [L. ex, out; Eng. pence, a plural coin, as it 
were.] 1. The cost of operating an insurance company. 2. Poet- 
ically considered, the spot in a company's coat of mail at which 
all its enemies aim their shafts. 3. In this respect some com- 
panies are vulnerable, others impregnable. (Note. — Both of these 
words will be found to be legitimate upon reference to our con- 
temporary, Noah W.) 4. No company feels proud of a large ex- 
pense account, and it is not encouraged to growth by physical 
culture or health foods. If the president or manager of a com- 
pany wakes up in the morning and finds that the expense-account 
has taken advantage of his yielding to the demands of an ex- 

—60- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



hausted and unravelled system and has grown several joints dur- 
ing the night, he cuts it back. This is a distressing operatioa 
and often results in the firing of somebody, the canceling of an 
order for a new rug in the front office or the buying of a cheaper 
brand of cigars to be used in coercing insurance journalists who 
may call, innocently unaware of the foul change. There are other 
ways of reducing expenses which may occur to versatile presi- 
dents. These are only given as examples. 5. The expense item 
as it appears in the annual statement is examined with a micro- 
scope by the State insurance board of health. 

"With pride they sang on the housetops 
About their business immense, 
But they never told in a whisper 

How their income all went for expense. " 
—Prom The Fall of the Golden Circle of Simple Simons. Canto XXII. 



Expense-' Ra-'tio, n. 1. The ratio of expense of manage- 
ment and operation of an insurance company to the premium re- 
ceipts. 2. It is found by dividing the former by the latter and its 
proportions are usually sufficiently magnificent to be discernible 
without the aid of a microscope. 



Ex pe ^ ri ence, ecks pe' re ense, n. [L. experientia.'\ 1. 
The school in which fools and insurance companies learn. Neither 
are apt soon to receive diplomas, as both fail to profit very large- 
ly from their daily lessons. Everybody knows how fools stumble 
along from day to day, out of one ditch, into another — from expe- 
rience. But insurance companies should do better. In every 
home office, fire, life or otherwise, where the business is carried 
on with the idea of eliminating the element of chance as far as 
possible and there is no desire to harbor felines of tiger propor- 
tions, systematic records are kept showing the actual experience 
of the company with the various classes of risks, the different 
ages, sexes, all the lights, shades and shadows of divisions, bio- 
graphical, geographical, topographical, physiological, psycho- 
logical, sociological, chronological and logical. These are pre- 
pared, arranged and grouped in neat card systems so that they 
will be comprehensible and of ready reference. Anyone not an 
illiterate can read the writing, any underwriter can read the 
meaning. This collection of data, this digest of facts, is called 

— 61 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

the experience of the company. And companies have gone still 
further and dumped all their individual experiences into one 
cauldron and the product has been "combined experience." If 
experience is a school, combined experience is the university. 
Having such a volume of knowledge, a treasure of precedents, 
upon which to base every move, every venture, common sense 
would dictate a strict adherence to its precepts; but nay! nay! 
the underwriter must indulge in the pursuit of rainbow money- 
bags and golden fleeces (a double-edged word in this connection). 
He likes fairy tales and will go trailing off after phantasms pre- 
sented by "greed for business" and will set aside his better judg- 
ment as born of experience at the first swaggering suggestion 
from "competition." 

"^xpeWewce, thou art a jewel, 

Seldom valued by the possessor 

Until thou art lost. 

Heeded, thou dost increase in value — 

Neglected, stone by stoae is added 

Until the string becomes 

A chain of burdens and regrets." 

—From A July Nightmare. Act XX. So. 1. 

Ex pi ra '' tion, n. [L. expiratio.'} 1. The termination of an 
insurance contract through and because of the due culmination 
of the period of time for which it was written. 2. The death of 
a policy. 3. The finish. 4. Insurance policies, like all other 
things or institutions mundane, succumb eventually or sooner 
to the ravages of time, the tax collector and the undertaker or 
the rag picker, and expire. Also, like other things aforesaid, the 
tenure of life and usefulness varies directly according to the dif- 
ference between the date appearing at the top of the policy and 
that at the close, as the case may be. Life insurance policies are 
generally longer lived than fire insurance policies, though some 
of the latter are so-called "perpetual policies," wear whiskers 
of the chest-protector variety, and tell yarns about the big loss 
ratios of the early seventies and the good old days which fol- 
lowed, when insurance was as great a boon as a porterhouse 
steak is to-day. 5. One of the pastimes of local fire insurance 
agents is hunting for expirations. They enter into it with the 
same zest that used to attract adverse criticism when, in their 
immature years, they searched orchards, not necessarily the 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



parental vine and fig tree, for fruit, mature or immature. As 
in those romantic, bygone days, the agent seldom gets well 
started in the stripping of a good tree of expirations which he 
may have discovered before some other agent comes along and 
helps him to pick up the choicest specimens or the man who 
owns the ground that sprouted the seed that grew the tree that 
bore the fruit appears on the scene. 6. In some districts local 
agents have put up "no trespassing" signs in their expiration or- 
chards, and any one mistaking their purpose is politely and em- 
phatically lynched. 7. After an expiration has been picked and 
put into the cellar it is called a "renewal." [See Same.] 
Syn. Expiry. 

''Expirations are the life of the business." 

—From Special and Other Hazards. P. 77. 

Ex pire'', v. 1. [L. expiro.'\ 1. To become terminated through 
fulness of days. 2, To die naturally. 

Ex plo ' sion, n. See Removal. 

Ex po ' sure, eks po'zhur, n. 1. An adjoining or neighboring 
structure. 2. Buildings, like people, are known by the company 
they keep and a fireproof sky-scraper that associates v/ith a flock 
of old-fashioned fire-traps has to pay for it in its insurance rate. 

3. If it were not for exposures there would be no conflagrations. 

4. The exposure hazard diminishes inversely as the cube root of 
the distance from the risk in question to the exposure divided by 
the railroad fare to the home office raised to the nth power. 5. 
The hazard from exposure is lessened by protecting all openings 
with iron shutters and sometimes by a sheet of water which can 
be unfolded like a curtain when needed. 6. A sufficient number 
of exposures taken together makes a congested district. 

See Universal Mercantile Schedule et al. 

1. In life insurance phraseology — the laying bare to public 
scorn of the outrageous mal-practices of some other company. 2. 
A circus for all except the company exposed. 

" I'll meet your exposures 
With blacker disclosures 
Of reckless expenses, 
Rebates and sharp dealing, 
And other offences 
That savor of stealing." 

—From Golden Rule Ballads. 

— 63 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Ex tend ^ed Insur^'ance, n. 10. F. extendre smd ensurer.'] 

1. Life insurance which remains in force where premium pay- 
ments have been discontinued before expiration, its vitality being 
derived from the accumulated values on premiums already paid. 

2. Insurance which continues going from its own momentum. 
This momentum is calculated by subtracting from the reserve a 
certain surrender charge which varies directly as the pressure of 
competition, and applying the remainder to future premiums. The 
easiest way, however, to find out is to look on the policy which, if 
equipped with extended insurance features, indicates the values 
by years. 3. The policyholder who thinks that he can get rid of a 
modern reversible adhesive life insurance policy on which he has 
been paying three years or more by simply lapsing it or failing to 
pay premiums has another think to his credit. Most of those doc- 
uments are now equipped with a lot of surrender or paid up or 
other values which begin to operate as soon as the premium stim- 
ulous is withdrawn, one of which the retiring policyholder must 
select. 

See Dividend. 

t 

Ex ter ^ oal Haz '' ard, n. [An insurance polyglot, what- 
ever that is.] 1. A hazard which affects a risk, but is outside of 
it. For instance, among the external hazards of an elevator are 
the passing trains, dead grass, hobos, etc. As to a saloon, of 
course, conspicuous among external hazards is Carrie Nation, 
though, in truth, she should be classed as an internal hazard, for 
it is after she gets inside that she gets (ax)tion, [This was en- 
tirely unintentional and an innocent perpetration. Puns are 
strictly and decisively barred from this classical production, as 
a casual investigation will prove, and, upon positive proof that 
the author has indulged, the (pun)ishment will be made to fit 
the crime.] To return to the saloon, most of its hazards are of 
the internal variety and extra hazardous. 2. Exposures are ex- 
ternal hazards, except in photography, when they may be either, 
neither or both. 3. External hazards are often greater than the 
inherent hazards; however, this is not strange, considering the 
limitless space over which they may distribute themselves, for 
an external hazard, to be such, does not necessarily need to be 
within a fixed radius, but may suddenly assert itself as such 

— 64 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

though miles away — in point, the O'Leary cow, hooked on to a 
conflagration. 

Compare Inherent Hazard. 

Syn. External Risk. 



Ex ' tra Haz ' ard ous, adj. [L. extra; Sp. azzard.l 1, In- 
volving more than ordinary hazards. 2. A classification in life 
and accident insurance applied to occupations or pursuits which 
present unusual menaces to the one engaged therein. Such 
classes are either prohibited altogether or are charged a higher 
rate. 3. All walks in life, whether paved or unimproved, abound 
in shadows and pitfalls, wherein death lurks with a hungry 
grin, waiting for victims. The clay-encumbered spirit is dropped, 
whether or no, into this mortal vale of tears and forced to run 
the gauntlet. No individual specimen can hope to escape, 
whether he, or "it," rather, may be born with a mouth full of 
silverware, in the lap of luxury, or with only a pair of leather 
lungs and poor, but honest, parents. It begins to play tag with 
the Grim Destroyer as it takes its first breath, and from then 
until its final gasp it is dodging the great inevitable in forms 
seen and unseen, realized and unrealized, of which the unseen 
and unrealized constitute the majority report. Colic, croup, dog 
days, rash, scarlatina, teeth, doctors, osculating friends, rela- 
tives and callers, awkward nurses, fire, scarlet fever, whooping 
cough, bachelor uncles, tight clothes, draughts, broken-nosed 
brothers and sisters — these are a few of the ordinary hazards 
that surround the path of the human adventurer while it is yet 
only indefinitely "it" and to the world at large presents no evi- 
dences in dress or conversation as to its personal choice of sex. 
Up to this point it has been naturally handicapped, being com- 
pelled, because of locomotive inability, to encounter no other 
modes of destruction than those which came to it voluntarily, 
but as soon as "it" becomes "he" or "she," and is able to waddie 
about in search of trouble, the aforesaid shadows and pitfalls 
multiply. The gauntlet runner now passes between an active 
double row of instantaneous extermination in a multitude of 
forms — green fruit, mumps, measles, diphtheria, stone bruises, 
rusty nails, swimming, fights, falling off of or into things, 
horses, dogs, policemen, fireworks, thin ice, rotten branches, 

I.D.-5. -65- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



new houses, bicycles, firearms, baseball, football, hazing, college 
rushes, overstudy (rare), big head, love, wisdom teeth, little 
brothers, society, punch bowls, bacillus, microbes, theories, im- 
agination, conservatories, matrimony, mothers-in-law, fathers 
ditto, brothers ditto, sisters, uncles, aunts, etc., ditto, and so on 
beyond the power of calculation or enumeration. But all these 
^re ordinary hazards with which an insurance company is will- 
ing to take chances, but when a man deliberately accepts a job 
in a powder mill, a dynamite emporium, joins the army, becomes 
a stone-blasting artist, gets overcurious about the North Pole 
or engages in the business of soliciting insurance, the companies 
draw the line, and on his side of it write in bold, red type, 
^'Extra Hazardous." 



Fac-'tory, fak' to ri, n. [It. fatoria.'] 1. A building used 
for manufacturing purposes. 2. A hive of human industry. 3. 
Man is one of the most industrious of all insect life. Drones are 
told to "go to the ant, thou sluggard," and are otherwise en- 
couraged to get better or make themselves scarce. A large 
human drone making himself scarce about three feet prior to a 
canine projectile is a real inspiring sight. It tends to make one 
glad that his presence is not offensive to his dogship — glad that 
he is not the other fellow. But thus far this definition would 
not help the uninformed to discriminate between a factory and 
a cul-de-sac. (Am not certain myself what a cul-de-sac is, 
but hope it is nothing offensive, though it sounds rather suspi- 
cious.) When you are walking down a street and suddenly 
come upon a great big little bit of a large small frame, brick 
or steel building wearing on the off side a tall iron or brick 
smokestack which is belching (most chimneys seem to suffer 
from stomach trouble) forth smoke in quantities suflacient, if 
properly distributed, to retire all the laundrymen in the State, 
nine chances in ten that's a factory — or an asylum — or a flat. 
But if you wish to make sure, just step into the entrance marked 
"office," and if a cross-eyed, hoarse-voiced polype sings out, 
"We don't need any help to-day! Hereafter when you want 
work call at the south gate at 7 o'clock and see the foreman! 
Close the door! ! !" That's a factory. 4. Factories generally pre- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



sent large open areas, unattractive to insurance companies. 
Fire doors, partitions, sprinklers, fire buckets, nozzles, hose, au- 
tomatic alarms, etc., are resorted to to decrease this hazard. If 
a factory has a bad case of moral hazard, however, all the above 
and foregoing avail but little to prevent the inevitable. 
See Building. 

Fail ' ure, n. See Receivership. 



Fake, n. See Green Goods. 

Farm Busi ' ness, farm biz' nes, n. [Fr. ferme and he- 
sogne.} 1. Insurance which is written on rural risks. 2. The 
majority of companies consider this class of business unprofit- 
able and write but little of it. A few that have had broad ex- 
periences and know the shallows handle it to their satisfaction. 
When a farm risk takes fire it usually sees the thing through, 
and nothing is left but the insurance policy, the mortgage and 
an empty cistern. 3. The agent Vv'ho writes this class of business 
acceptably must give much personal attention to his work. He 
must become generally acquainted in several counties. He 
should know just how every farmer in his territory stands, 
morally, mentally and financially. Incidentally, he picks up con- 
siderable stray knowledge which he exercises to the best of his 
ability. For example, he knows just what places offer the great- 
est gastronomic inducements (though probably he would not 
call them such) ; he knows just what farmer has the prettiest 
daughters, which the finest orchard, what days are churning 
days and just when the buttermilk will be ripe, where the feather 
beds are thickest and so on. None of this information appears 
in the inspection slips, but it all has its influence on the selec- 
tion of risks. 4. Congested districts are not a very considerable 
factor in farm business, as the chief exposures are the elements. 



Fee, n. [Said to be a very aristocratic word, as it traces, 
according to a number of genealogical experts, direct descent 
from the A. S. feoh, meaning a stipend, a reward, which is recog- 
nized as one of the oldest words in all European languages. 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Some even claim that it ante-dates the flood and escaped destruc- 
tion in the deluge by engaging in service with Noah, who, as 
purser of the ark, had use for such a word.] 1. The price of a 
license from a State insurance department. 2. A tribute levied 
on insurance companies. 3. The amount to be charged as fees 
for licenses or other so-called services rendered by insurance de- 
partments vary in different States, and are fixed by the State 
Legislatures. The price is never rebated. Insurance agents 
would do well to emulate the example of insurance commission- 
ers, who always hold out for their price and get it. You will wait 
far into the winter before you see an insurance department ad- 
vertising a bargain counter on a lot of summer-weight licenses 
that they do not want to carry over until next season. Styles in 
licenses change most decidedly, too, every year, and though it 
may be so late in the season that the current mode of licenses 
will be out of style next week, still you would not be able to buy 
a $2 shop-worn copy for $1.99. 

See Insurance Department, Taxes and the last annual report. 

" 'Tis a fee ! You can take it or leave it." 

— Shak. Jr. 

_____ i 

Field Man, feeld man, n. [A pair of words that have asso- 
ciated together long enough to become one, or at least matri- 
monially compounded with a hyphen.] 1. The traveling repre- 
sentative of an insurance company. 2. An insurance scout. 3. 
A United States army lieutenant, during the late Espano-Ameri- 
cano pleasantry, was ordered by his superior to "take a message 
to Garcia." The task was recognized to be no Sunday school pic- 
nic, but he delivered the goods, and because thereof his name 
appeared in large type in all the papers; he was photographed 
until he was worn to a shadow; lecture bureaus tried to stake 
out exclusive rights on him; he became famous. But the field 
man of an insurance company is "taking messages to Garcia" 
every week, and when he returns to report at headquarters, in- 
stead of a brass band and an osculating committee to v/elcome 
him, he often finds a billet-doux from the company asking what 
kept him so long, or calling attention to a so-called protuberance 
on his last month's expense account, or giving him another "mes- 
sage" to take to another "Garcia." 4. The duties of a field man 
are too numerous to list, but, as most conspicuous, might be 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



mentioned adjusting, appointing agents, inspecting, lifting sup- 
plies and other burdens, doing the oil-on-the-water act, jollying 
agents, canceling risks in such a graceful and harmonious tone 
of voice that the agent will not take offense and place all his 
preferred business with "the other" company, keeping down the 
loss ratio, increasing the volume of premiums, discouraging his 
expense account, prosecuting dishonest agents, keeping in touch 
with the field, reading insurance journals, side-stepping gracefully 
in the baleful presence of a reporter to avoid telling more than 
he ought to about association meetings and confidential com- 
munications, and, during his spare time, removing old schedules 
and applying new ones. These, of course, are only a few of the 
duties of a field man. A complete list has never been published 
because of the high price of paper and the limited supply of 
printers' ink. 

See Adjuster, Inspector, Special Agent, etc. 

"If livrs were published volumes, 

O Horatio, 
What a complicated fabrication 

The insurance yie?(i man's 

Brief span would make." 

—From Nothing Doing. Act X. Sc. 4. 



Fire, n. [A. S. fyr.'] 1. The effect of combustion or the 
rapid oxidation of substances. 2, Fire was presented to the hu- 
man race by Prometheus, an adventurous Titan, who stole it 
from heaven one afternoon when the gods and goddesses were 
attending a ladies' day baseball game between Chicago and St. 
Louis. Two theories are set forth as to why Mr. Prometheus did 
this, one of which is that he had a spite against the insurance 
companies and took this way to get even. The other is that there 
were no fire insurance companies at the time, and he saw that, 
with the destructive element in the hands of careless mortals, 
such institutions would become necessary, and so, exercising a 
J. P. M. foresight, he introduced the fire and then organized a com- 
pany with 300,000,000 talents capital. The latter seems the 
more plausible theory. Whichever is true the fact remains that 
fire has been used successfully ever since. 3. A large, spreading 
fire is called a conflagration. [See same.] 

Compare Combustion. 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

Fire ^-Bug, fire' bug, n. 1. Entom. Igneous Heteroptera; 
genus, homo. 2. Specifically a two-legged insect inhabiting all 
the lands of the globe. It occurs both male and female, the former 
predominating. It often attains the size of a full-grown man, un- 
less it meets its just deserts in its early stages. Is both car- 
nivorous and herbivorous, not being a fire-eater, as the name 
would indicate. Although it has no visible wings, it is commonly 
supposed to fiy at certain times, a pastime in which it indulges 
for the sake of its health. It is not often observed in the day- 
time, as it avoids the light of publicity, which is fatal to it. It is 
a nocturnal pest, and is recognized as very destructive, annually 
making costly depredations on property and insurance assets. 
It makes a specialty of coming in contact with over-insured risks. 
It applies its red-hot sting to a favorable spot, and, as the flames 
arise, it flies away. Various measures have been tried, with more 
or less success, to prevent its ravages, but the most effective is 
conceded to be a dose of high-ropium, a product of the frontier 
States. This is usually applied to the neck of the insect (after 
capture) and, if used vigorously, will prevent the further spread 
of the species as far as that individual specimen is concerned. A 
dress suit of coal-tar, trimmed with goose feathers (applied after 
capture) is also said to frighten other firebugs from a community. 
There is no game law protecting fire-bugs and one may shoot 
them at any time, if he's a good shot, without fear or favor. It is 
said to be great sport and has become quite a fad in the West. 

Syn. : Incendiary, — ! ! — ! ! ! 

Fire Cor ^ o ner, n. See Fire Marshal. 

Fire De part ^ meot, n. [A. S. -fyr; Dagonish, diparti- 
mento.'} 1. An institution common to most towns and large cities 
which discourages fires and conflagrations. It is composed of 
men, horses and apparatus of various kinds which, properly ap- 
plied to a conflagration in embryo, will prevent its hatching. 
Fire departments when not in use are kept in buildings technic- 
ally known as engine-houses, where the men engage in swapping 
yarns, playing cinch and seven-up, cleaning apparatus, currying 
horses and political favor and in other pastimes. In a state of 
repose a fire department might not impress the casual observer 

— 70— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



as an uncommon institution, but when an alarm trickles into the 
building over the electric wire he will observe a change. The 
chances are, if he is green, that he will also observe stars among 
other things and mix up promiscuously in the little excitement 
wkich ensues in a way detrimental to his physical comfort and 
well-being; for fire departments have a habit of breaking up so- 
cial intercourses which may be held in their houses quite uncere- 
moniously. A fire department in full action is a grand sight. A 
man on top of a six-story building will bawl an unintelligible 
order to a man on the ground, who then goes and does it. The 
throbbing of the engines, the bursting of the hose, the falling of 
walls, the network of lines, the prospect of a fire sale and the 
question of the insurance involved all awaken interest when a 
fire department is in play. 2. Fire departments are classed as 
eff.cient and inefficient. 3. The worst thing that can happen to a 
fire department is politics. 4. The individual component parts of 
a fire department announce their approach on a thoroughfare 
by means of a gong. This same idea is current with street cars, 
but otherwise they are easily distinguished, the one from the 
other. 

See Bucket Brigade. 

Fire^ = Es cape^, fire-es kape', n. [A. S, fyr; L. ex and ca- 
pere.l 1. A misnomer; not an escape for the use of the fire, as 
the term implies, but a means of escape from fire (an exposition 
of a slight distinction which will doubtless be gratefully re- 
ceived). 2. Arch. — A more or less pretentious outside decoration 
to be found on most high buildings, that is if the searcher is not 
rattled or blinded by smoke. Some are built perpendicularly and 
some are cut on the bias. The perpendicular style may not look 
so cumbersome as the other, but when occasion demands an out- 
side descent from the top of a twenty-story building by means of 
a fire-escape, the bias variety is much the more to be preferred. 
3. There are other kinds of fire-escapes in general use. With one 
specimen the escaper jumps into a tube, spirates a few times and 
finds himself on the ground with a suspiciously accurate imitation 
of a jag which may embarrass him momentarily, if he is sensi- 
tive; or he may make use of another by attaching himself confid- 
ingly to a hook and line by the back collar button and be dangled 
down through space after the manner of a kitten being carried 

— 71 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



by its motker; or he can grab his umbrella, or some one's else, 
and jump out of the window. The latter style usually ruins the 
umbrella. There are also ingenious devices, a copy of which one 
may carry about with him in a trunk and, if he should happen to 
remember it when needed, he could attach it to the bedstead aDd 
accomplish the desired end. 

"After noticing where your room-mate has deposited his watch and pocket 
book, the second thing to do is to locate the fire-escape."— From. Rules for 
Traveling. Chapter on '* Hotels," page 44114. 1 

Fire In sur ^ ance, feigher in shur' ans, n. [A. S. fyr; 
L. in and securs.] 1. An agreement or contract to furnish in- 
demnity for loss occasioned by fire. 2. The courts of law have 
not been able to define the term so glibly. Even as to gender, 
whether he, she or it, there is dispute. Fire insurance has been 
termed the "bulwark of financial credit" (masculine), 'the hand- 
maiden of commerce" (feminine) and "a hydra-headed trust" 
(neuter). With such a variance of opinion it is not strange 
that its exact status in the courts is a question and that it enters 
doors of such uncertain hospitality with reluctance. 3. Fire in- 
surance is the balance wheel which eliminates to a great extent 
the erratic uncertainties of chance from business ventures, makes 
possible the congestion of immense values within small areas 
and distributes the blow of misfortune so generally that its de- 
structive force is not felt. While it may not be strictly accurate 
to say that modern business and industrial methods are the out- 
growth of the advanced comprehensibility of fire insurance, it 
is safe to assert that the present business fabric would make but 
a sorry, frazzled appearance if all the interwoven threads of fire 
insurance were drawn out. 4. It is not an impossible matter to 
find a man who thinks he can get along without a wife or a 
dress suit, or an automobile, or religion, or two pairs of socks, 
or a boiled shirt, or a life insurance policy, or an accident insur- 
ance policy, but the man who owns a building that is uninsured 
is becoming a more uncommon freak every day. It is estimated 
that the species will be extinct about the time the Panama canal 
is completed. 

"Fire insurance as an activity occupies the unique position of being an 
undefined industry.'*— A. F. Dean in '^ Fire Insurance," Rough Notes, Vol, 
XXX, No. 11. Page 248. 

-72- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Fire'' man, n. [A. S. -fyr; Gothic manna.'] 1. One who ex- 
tinguishes fires for a living. 2. A soldier who fights fires. 3. Zoo!.— 
A ruminating omnivorous biped of the igneus bellicosimus hu- 
manicus group belonging to the genus homo. It is indigenous 
to civilized countries, but has reached its best development in 
the United States. Nature has failed to make sufficient provision 
as to its protection from the elements, and it covers itself with 
a fabric neatly woven from the pawned surplus of the sheep 
and the product of the cotton fields. This artificial covering is 
usually dark blue in color, though specimens have been discov 
ered which affected more brilliant hues. It takes its name from 
its remarkable behavior in the presence of fire. A flock of igne- 
ous bellicosimus humanicuses may be perched indolently about 
their nest, looking as inanimate as a country store two hours 
before mail time, when they are suddenly aroused by an alarm 
of fire. As for the transformation from malarial lounging to 
bewildering activity there's nothing like it. The reawakening 
which follows the arrival of a fresh keg in a bevy of political 
campaign colonists, though pretty good, is not a circumstance. 
The agile igneous belli-etc. hies himself extemporare to the scene 
of the fire, and by means of natural and artificial enaowments 
administers a solar plexus or some such fatal surgical operation. 
He enjoys this work so much that he is ready night and day for 
duty, seldom taking time to visit his family and hardly keeping 
acquainted with the little igneous bellicosimus humanicuses 
which swarm the home nest. 4. Prince Henry, during his his- 
torical conquest of America, was shown some of the most cher- 
ished institutions to be found in a republican form of govern- 
ment, but of all that he saw, including even such eye-openers as 
the Chicago stockyards, the Milwaukee lakes of beer and the new 
mercantile schedule in full operation, he said "dot for kvickness, 
I haf nefer opservet-et-et-t-t-t yet anyting vot, to der Kansas 
City fire departments for suddenness, coot ged negxt; vos ist?" 
Certainly a tribute that should make every true American swell 
up with pride. 5. The fireman is a modern hero who faces death 
In v/orse form than the soldier who charges the enemy; faces it 
unhesitatingly, daily, calmly, as a matter of duty, without praise, 
but often criticism. He saves a million dollars' worth of prop- 
erty as coolly as another man saves the price of a shine by black- 
ing his own boots. He saves lives as calmly as another man 

— 73 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



crushes out the life of an ant in the path — and at but little more 
than living wages. (Guess this ought to be good for two comps. 
to the next firemen's ball.) 

Fire - Mar ' shal, n. [See Massachusetts Statutes.] 1. A 
comparatively recent product of wise legislation. 2. A naturalist 
who makes a specialty of collecting fire-bugs. There are but few 
of these scientists making researches in this country at present, 
but the field offers such rich possibilities that the successes of 
these new bugologists will naturally attract others. To become 
a fire-marshal one does not enter some university, but the nearest 
Legislature, where, by means of a stuffed club and a big roll, he 
secures the passage of a fire-marshal law. Having accomplished 
this, he then exercises his political pull like a football team before 
a championship game, and is tendered the appointment as fire- 
marshal and given a license to do business. With this he has the 
whole State as his exclusive hunting ground and can pursue his 
collecting without competition. It thus appears that the profes- 
sion will never be overcrowded. Prof. Chas. W. Whitcomb, of 
Massachusetts, has a rare collection of fire-bugs and Prof. S. D. 
Hollenbeck, of Ohio, though he but recently received his diploma, 
has already bagged some excellent specimens. The collections 
are kept in State museums, sometimes called penitentiaries. 

See Fire-Coroner, Arson, Incendiarism. 

Fire^ proof, adj. 1. Proof against fire. 2. An imaginary 
style of architecture which is impervious to the ravages of fire. 
3. Many fireproof buildings, so-called, under proper conditions 
and surroundings, have presented the insurance companies with 
most realistic imitations of 50 per cent, claims, and even total 
losses. Fireproof more properly signifies a lesser degree of in- 
fiammability. A fireproof building, judiciously equipped as to oc- 
cupancy, may become a fire-trap. 4. Fireproofs are a good thing 
as far as they go, and their construction is encouraged by low 
rates, but underwriters are learning that the name is a misnomer, 
and do not spend the money received as premiums on this class 
of business as soon as they get it, thinking it is as good as earned. 
5. There are three or four structures in the United States which 
are considered as perfectly fireproof, and almost any fire insurance 

—74- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



company would be willing to take a line on them at the minimum 
rate. Three of these are the obelisk in Central Park, Plymouth 
Rock and the Golden Gate at San Francisco. 6. A fireproof build- 
ing is ordinarily innately above reproach, its downfall, if it comes, 
being due to external hazards and exposures. 

Fire' -Trap, n. [A, S. fyr; treppe.} 1. A familiar style of 
architecture having, as its main characteristic, rapid combusti- 
bility. Judging from its general use in the United States its 
popularity is unquestioned. 2. Fire-traps range in price from two 
bits up. They are within the reach of all. The poor man may 
have his cosy little home with gable roof, dormer windows and 
fire-trap design of flue; or the rich man may build his $100,000 
mansion with great plate glass front windows, modern con- 
veniences, an excess mortgage, over-insurance and an up-to-date 
system of dumb-waiters connecting the different floors and an 
imposing mansard roof, all of approved fire-trap construction. 3. 
Its special attraction is its cheapness. With this style of archi- 
tecture one can make the most show for the least money. A prob- 
able midnight show in the way of a bonfire is its chief drawback 
and one reason why this style is not popular with fire insurance 
companies. The other reason is that they are just as likely to 
burn at any other time. 4. As the name implies, it is made to 
catch a-fire. (Doubtful.) 5. Fire-traps are favorite roosting 
places for fire-bugs just before the migration season. 

See Special-Hazard, Ninety per cent, of the Indianapolis 
apartment houses, etc. 

Fire Wall, phyre waughl, n. [From fire and wall, two 
common words, which, however, trace direct descent from barbar- 
ous Anglo-Saxon hieroglyphics with a certainty that would make 
the modern would-be aristocrats emeraldic with envy. Notwith- 
standing their imposing origin, these words may be used by the 
most ordinary unpedigreed member of society without fear of 
being called to account by a footman in livery.] 1. A brick or 
other fire-resisting wall of standard thickness, or over, without 
openings, and rising a foot or more above the roof. 2. 
Fire walls are recognized as desirable attributes by the fire in- 
surance companies, but, like other such, they may be over- 

— 75 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



done. A building constructed entirely of fire walls would pre- 
sent a very pleasant risk as far as the hazard from exposures 
would be concerned, but for utility, etc., it would hardly be a suc- 
cess. It might be a nice place in which to run a wildcat insur- 
ance company or edit an insurance journal or a personal issue of 
paper money, but as a plant for a department store or an ice- 
cream parlor it would be too exclusive. 3. In inspecting a building 
it is often necessary to ascertain the thickness of a fire wall in 
the lower stories. As there are no openings, this often requires 
some ingenuity on the part of the inspector. An adroit mathe- 
matician accomplishes the desired end by measuring from the 
wall on each side to openings in the lateral wall, or to various 
points out in the street or the alley, or the next county, between 
which a measurement can be secured. This is very easy where 
the tape measure is long enough and not inclined to stretch, 
etc. Some inspectors dig a hole through the wall; some ask the 
man who made it and some guess at it. 
See Standard Wall. 

"Did you ever see afire wall tarn? 
If not you still have more to learn." 

—From Wisdom a Plenty. Foot Notes. 



Fix ^ ture, fiks' tyur, n. [L. figo, fixus.'] 1. That part of the 
equipment of a factory, store or dwelling which is attached to the 
building. [Note. — A cat may become attached to a particular 
building for some reason or other, but is not necessarily consid- 
ered a fixture^ at least not in the sense in which it is here used.] 
2, That part of the contents of a building which, though not a part 
of the building, is yet fastened thereto by nails, glue, wire or 
other binding substance (except, maybe, family ties, mortgage 
notes and the bonds of matrimony). From the way in which the 
lexicographer is floundering around this subject, the searcher for 
truth may conclude that he does not know what he is talking 
about. In the main this is erroneous, as the following sample 
list of what really come under the head of fixtures will demon- 
strate, to-wit, namely: Shelving, gas jets, bathtubs, stationary 
washstands. That is to say, these things are fixtures if you can 
stay in the house while the last tenant is moving out, and if you 
quarter in it a squad of policemen and a few Gatling guns until 

-76- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



the next tenant moves in. Otherwise they are evanescent intangi- 
bilities, all legal definitions to the contrary notwithstanding. 
See Furniture. 

"The wise householder locketh up his /izturfS in a moth-proof, burglar- 
proof, tenant-proof strong box while his house reposeth in idleness. " — From 
Tnsura7ice Parables, Chap. V. V.6. 

Flat, adj. [Ice. fiatr.'] 1. Uniform, or affecting all, as "flat 
advance" in rates. 2. Arbitrary. 3. Though designated "flat," 
an advance of this nature is properly a perpendicular addition 
to the altitude of rates in general. It is sometimes referred to 
by the secular press as "Rates Soar Skyward," "Fire Insurance 
Rates Take to Balloons," "Sky Rocket Insurance Rates," "Insur- 
ance Trust Boosts Rates," and in other figurative and disfigura- 
tive terms. Flat advances are never resorted to except as heroic 
remedies to prevent flat failures. It takes nerve born of despera- 
tion to apply a flat advance, for it operates on the public as a 
home-made mustard plaster acts on a small boy, only, of course, 
on a proportionately grander scale. As the mustard instrument 
of torture draws the pain, so a flat advance, faithfully applied, 
draws painful attention of the most virulent type. [We have no 
"virulent" type in our print shop just at present, but hope to 
have a few fonts in time for the next Legislature.] 

See Advance. 

" You may raise your rates by schedule, 

You may raise or else stand pat, 
But remember that you've said you'll 

Never more advance them, flat." 

—From The AgenVs Plaint. Chorus. 

Flat Build ^ing, phlat bild 'ing, n. 1. A structure contain- 
ing a number of distinct dwellings, all under one roof and having 
common street entrances. 2. Since his inception man has been a 
gregarious insect, delighting to swarm in colonies or communi- 
ties. This trait broke forth as soon as enough specimens existed 
to make it possible. Of course, Adam and Eve can hardly be said 
to have been gregarious, but as there were only two of them it 
should not be the cause of carping criticism. They flocked as 
abundantly as their limited numbers would permit. 3. The first 
flats in the United States were built by the cliff-dwellers out in 
the Rocky Mountains. As far as the records of the Denver in- 
spection bureau show, the insurance rate on these structures was 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



ridiculously low, probably due to the fact that the playful gaso- 
line stove was yet a futurity and the subtle electric wire had not 
been introduced by Ben Franklin and his understudies. What- 
ever may be said derogatory to these primal flats, the present 
generation must grovel in the humiliation of having lost the art 
of running one without the despotic rule of a janitor. 4. The 
modern flat building, besides giving the insurance companies 
something on which to lavish their imaginary profits, furnishes 
the sociological student an exceptional opportunity to pursue his 
pleasant researches. 5. Plat buildings usually occur on corners, 
and can be distinguished by the size, shape, flat roof, a crowd of 
children on the sidewalk and a melodious symphonic extrav- 
aganza produced by a score, more or less, of pianos undergoing 
simultaneous operations. 
Syn. Apartment House. 

FJex^i bSe Pre^mi um, n. [L. flexiMlis, bending, and prae- 
mium, profit derived from booty.] 1. A premium which is capable 
of being bent, turned, twisted, warped or stretched without break- 
ing. 2. Susceptible to monetary climatic conditions. 3. Changing, 
fluctuating, aggravating, amazing, irritating, exacerbating. 4. 
The flexible premium is commonly found associated with policies 
of the assessment persuasion and congenial. 5. It is a humorist, 
and takes pleasure in springing little surprises on its owner. A 
flexible premium which calls for two quarts of assessments in the 
evening may be put up on the pantry shelf over night and by 
morning have increased its capacity to three quarts or a gallon. 
Of course, variety is a good thing in any life, but it has its places, 
one of which is not in a life insurance premium; so when a man 
discovers that his is getting frivolous and erratic it loses its high 
place in his regard. He gets rid of it if it is not too late, but he 
often has to keep it because he finds that he is no longer in de- 
mand with the companies dealing in the inflexible variety. 6. 
One of the great public questions of the latter part of the nine- 
teenth century was, "How far will a flexible premium stretch 
without breaking — the man?" 

See Premium. 

Compare Level Premium. 

''A flexible premium is a poor thing to tie to." 

—From Rubber Reports. Sec. 6. 

-78- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Float ^ing PoPi cy, phlote' ing pol' isy. [From floating 
and policy.'\ 1. A kind of comprehensive charitable fire insurance 
policy which spreads out promiscuously over a variety of prop- 
erties, generally contained in several buildings or in transit. 2. 
Some fire insurance policies are very narrow-minded, confining 
their interest to very specific items and designating in just what 
way they must be burned if the policy is to become a claim. 
Floating policies are not thus. In fact, they are exceedingly not. 
It is well for certain classes of business that there are such things 
as floating policies, otherwise they would soon sink. Railroads, 
street-car systems, grain dealers, shippers, etc., are the class of 
Insurers to whom floating policies appeal. 3. The term "floating" 
has no significance in a moist way, any more than floating rib 
or mineral float. It was just used because it happened to be lying 
around handy when the man who made the first floating policy 
needed a name for it. 

For^eign Com^pan y, phor' yn kom' pan i, n. [From foreign 
and company ; it is not necessary to go into exhaustive details.] 

1. An insurance company which was born in a foreign country, 
but, realizing its mistake, has emigrated to the United States and 
become naturalized. The immigration laws of the United States, 
as affecting insurance companies, are quite strict, and no com- 
pany can hope to slip through Castle Garden and win the Amer- 
ican shekels with its hand organ unless it puts up an admission 
fee of $200;000. This is not considered a gate receipt asset, to be 
used for the profit of our political mechanism, but is fumigated 
and held in trust, to be returned to the adventure seeker after it 
has had enough and wants to go home. This simply insures the 
respectability of a company, and that it will not jump its board 
bill or its reserve for unpaid losses account and such luxuries. 

2. Insurance companies of many different countries have compli- 
mented the United States by coming over here and helping out 
the home companies in the paying of losses. Some claim that the 
visitors have of late, in their excessive generosity, let their desire 
to please get the better of their underwriting discretion, and a 
number have been compelled to pack up their fractured resources 
and their urns of ashes, have accepted the return of their de- 
posits and have meekly gone home, sadder and wiser, and some- 
what overdone in spots. 3. A foreign company in one place is a 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

home company in another. 4. Companies of "other States" are 
sometimes designated "foreign companies." 

For ^ feit ure, phor' phit pur, n. [L. forfaiture.'\ 1. The 
nullification of a life insurance contract by the insured through 
neglect, intentional or unintentional, to comply with any of its 
requirements. 2. Poetically speaking, the sawing off of the limb 
between one's person and the main trunk. 3. Life insurance con- 
tracts are like timepieces: they must be wound up at regular in- 
tervals. There are twenty-four-hour clocks, eight-day clocks, 
thirty-day clocks and clocks that must be wound once a year. 
And there are indufntrial life policies with premiums weekly, and 
"provident policies" with premiums monthly, and ordinary pol- 
icies with premiums quarterly, semi-annually and yearly. If they 
are to keep going they need periodical attention. Again, there 
are the erratic nine-mile spring watches, at five a bushel, that 
must be wound whenever you think of it, and even then they go 
wrong, and there are the assessment policies, that are likely to 
call for financial encouragement when you least expect it or feel 
like giving it, and they, ditto, even then go wrong. In the last- 
mentioned variety forfeiture is generally the only specific remedy. 

Form, (pronounced as spelt), n. [L. and It. forma.l 1. A 
clause descriptive of the risk in point, to be attached to or in- 
serted in a fire insurance policy, of which it becomes a part. 2. 
Many classifications have standard forms in general use, but often 
specific cases require specially drawn forms. 3. Forms are not 
prepared with any particular stress as to literary merit, except 
maybe as to strength and directness. Any clerk who attempted 
to curry favor by writing his forms in verse would find his tal- 
ents misplaced — also himself. 4. Where several policies cover the 
same risk it is expedient that the forms in each should be alike. 
Where this is neglected it is sometimes discovered after a fire 
that a policy is like the earth was in the beginning — "without 
form and void." 

" The form was for a tombstone joint 
But somehow it got swapped 
With a drug store form— jon see the point— 
The druggist also dropped." 

From I WisJi I Had a Job, V. 8. 

— 80 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

Frame Build ' ing, n. [Derived from the nearest lumber 
yard.] 1. A style of architecture common to America and other 
places where lumber is cheap. A structure made principally of 
wood. 2. A delectable tid-bit for the fire fiend. 3. Frame build- 
ings are the reason that the United States has the fastest fire de- 
partments in the world, the most advanced types of fire apparatus, 
the most complete water systems — they are the natural result. 
Frame buildings in such an abundance are also the reason, in a 
large measure, why this land of greatness leads all others in the 
altitude of its average rate for fire insurance. 4. Frame buildings 
are commonest as places of abode, but many misguided economists 
have built business establishments, large and small, of this same 
and uncertain material. 

See Dwelling, etc. 

Frame Range, n. Three or more frame buildings of so so- 
ciable a nature that a fire in one will communicate readily with 
that or those adjoining. 

Frater^na! As so cia ^ lion, n. [L. frater; Anarch, asso- 
clare.l 1. A social and insurance club on the assessment plan. 
2. A brotherly arrangement often entered into by shortsighted 
individuals whereby the families of the ones who die first receive 
contributions from the survivors. The longer a member insists 
on living the slimmer are his chances of leaving an insurance 
asset. 3. The chief affliction of fraternal associations is their 
childlike faith in the pocket-reserve idea. [See same.] If this 
alone does not prove fatal they generally adopt names which are 
well qualified to provide a finish. They are regular orphan asy- 
lums, so to speak, when it comes to adopting names. The Occi- 
dent, the Orient, the present, the past, the skies above and the 
earth beneath are ransacked for suitable epithets (let it stand) 
and one gets his money's worth in long robes, tin stars, brass- 
headed broomsticks, gilt crowns, boiler-iron scimiters, horse hair 
whiskers, goatimobility, mysterious handshakes, signs, symbols, 
passwords, signals, imposters and defaulting potentates if he does 
not win out in the insurance deal. Lovers of music are prone to 
join fraternal orders so they can be buried to the accompaniment 
of a brass band. It seems to make them more willing to leave 
this mortal sphere and death is welcomed as an emancipation. 4. 

I. D.— 6 -81 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Fraternal associations have their place and it ordinarily takes 
them about twenty-five years to get there. 
See Assessmentism. 

Fra ter ^ nal ism, n. See Fraternal Association. 

Fraud, n. See Buncoism. 

Fur '' ni ture, phur' ne chur, n. [Dagonish fornitura.l 1. 
Articles of use or ornament necessary to the habitability of a 
dwelling or place of business; movables; chattels; effects. 2. 
Creature comforts. 3. That without which a house would be unoc- 
cupied and vacant. 4. There are several little striking character- 
istics about furniture worthy of note in passing. A room, which 
may appear to be meagerly furnished when lighted, is always 
as crowded with chairs, stoves, tables, beds, hardware, profanity 
and other ornaments as a junkshop, when wrapped in the folds 
of unilluminated night. This undisputed fact has long defied an 
explanation from scrutinizing science, and will probably continue 
to rank with other like mysteries, and have a salutary tendency 
to check the growing impression that nothing of knowledge lies 
beyond the limits of finite comprehension. What father, head of 
a growing and exacting family, has not arisen in the stilly night 
to give the ever-ready paregoric bottle a chance to get in its good 
work, or to put out the overlooked cat, or to attend to any one of 
ten thousand exploits of domestic economy common to hours 
stilly for other people, and has marveled at the sudden and exces- 
sive presentness of the one rocking chair? He has even been led 
to doubt his senses, or rather sense (feeling), and has hastily 
scratched a match, hoping to surprise some temporary magic mul- 
tiplication into permanency. But he is always disappointed, and 
there seems to be room enough in which to turn a load of hay 
without touching. Another point, of interest to fire insurance 
companies, is the remarkable appreciation in furniture values 
which follow a fire. A three-legged cripple of a bed, worth in the 
open market six bits, has been known to make fifty dollars' worth 
of ashes. Oak and poplar articles produce mahogany cinders. 
Family ties or associations are a style of upholstery that insur- 
ance companies find expensive. One adjuster recently passed 

— 82 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



upon a relic which had three visible family ties (two rope, one 
wire) and no end of invisible associations, which he was besought 
to consider in the appraisal. 
See Fixtures. 



Gas 'o line, or lene'', n. [Scandihoovian, ghazelhn, 
jerked hence.] 1. A product of petroleum and the devil. Used 
for heating, lighting, cooking, power, cleaning, bed-bug and fool- 
killing, rate raising and general extermination. These are a few 
of the standard uses of the fluid. It is an expansionist in every 
sense of the word, with a few other senses thrown in for good 
measure, and its field of usefulness and destructiveness is ever 
widening. Among its recent undertakings is the propulsion of 
automobiles. This style of locomotion is said not to be unpleas- 
ant to the one propelled, but when it gets under a fellow, as it 
sometimes does, and gives him a swift kick into the unknown be- 
yond it is not joy that he dies of. 2. Its chief fault is its volatil- 
ity. If it were not for this it would be robbed of its hazard — and, 
most likely, its usefulness as well. 3. Any one wishing to risk a 
sudden departure over the gasoline route by harboring it on his 
or her premises must obtain permission from the company writ- 
ing his or her fire insurance if he or she wishes to leave it as an 
available asset to his or her estate. 4. Gasoline is a good thing 
to start a fire with — a big, quick fire. 



Gen ^ er al A ^ gent, jen' er al a' gent. n. [L. generalis, 
genus, a kind. L. ago, agens, to act.] 1. An agent of an insurance 
company having a large territory under his control and ordinarily 
receiving a commission compensation. 2. Not a military title. 
To see one on the street you would never mistrust his greatness. 
They do not wear uniforms, though occasionally one affects a silk 
hat and a twenty-five-cent cigar, but these features are not char- 
acteristic and can not be relied upon. Viewed from the local 
agents' standpoint the life of a general agent is an eminence of 
joy, a pinnacle of ease and contentment, or as an American would 
say, "a cinch." The general agent himself is either unappreciative 

-?,3- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



or the local agent's focus is not properly adjusted, for he has been 
heard to remark on his lot in terms quite the opposite — and he 
ought to know. 4. The general agent is employed to develop terri- 
tory, break in raw men, transmogrify inertia into activity, fill 
allotments and other bottomless pits; and no matter how well he 
does one year he is expected to do better the next. He is con- 
tinually accomplishing the gymnastic impossibility of preceding 
his shadow when the sun is at his back. 
See Manager. 

Gen ' er al Form, n. A form which covers several items. 



Gen ^ er al Pol ' i cy , 1. A policy written under a general 
form. 2. Not a military title. 

Gift In sur ^ ance, n. [Indig. U. S.] 1. The fruit of the 
bonus tree, arbor donorum. It ripens commonly in the fall, the 
maturity of the fruit being hastened by the approaching change 
in the calendar and the amount being governed by the difference 
between business written and allotment, two botanical' terms 
which it is hardly worth while to explain to those who are not 
thoroughly conversant with technical phrases. Gift insurance, 
though pleasant as an article of diet, is pronounced by competent 
specialists to be unwholesome food, perverting the taste of the 
one who indulges, so that he finds the plainer, but more substan- 
tial, varieties of insurance nauseous and unsatisfying. Thus it 
is that the victim of gift insurance is sure, sooner or later, to 
discover along towards Christmas that the crop of gift insurance 
for that year is light, and, as he has so long abstained from the 
plain kind that he can not use it or get it, he is distressed to no- 
tice the approach of a long, cold winter, and with never a peck of 
insurance in the cellar to meet it. 

See Bonus. 

Gold Brick, n. See Fake. 



Good Faith, n. 1. The sine qua non of effective associa- 
tion work. The soul of it. Nevertheless associations often keep 

— 84— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

up an appearance of vitality, even after the soul has departed. 
Such are known as frosts. 2. Good faith is unselfish loyalty to 
the obligations of good practices. 

Green Goods, n. See Fraud. 

Gross, adj. [F. gros.l 1. Undiminished by deductions; en- 
tire. Not specific or detailed. Sum total; aggregate. 2. A com- 
mon term in underwriting phraseology, as gross premiums, gross 
losses, gross profits, etc., also et al. 3. Gross results in under- 
writing are often used to make impressions which would vaporize 
in the presence of net results. By skillful manipulations of gross 
and net items, the statement of a financial Rock of Gibraltar 
(nothing personal intended; had to borrow the Rock for effect) 
can be made to look like a cross-section of a Kansas cyclone, 
while the diagnosis of a shifting sand assessment calamity may 
be made to resemble an approved statement of the Bank of Eng- 
land. However, it takes an expert to do this successfully, one 
endowed with more or less hypnotic influence, and it would hardly 
be safe or sanitary for a novice to attempt it on an able-bodied, 
enlightened intellect. 4. The gross premium is the premium, raw 
from the producer, unshorn of its reinsurances, commissions or 
other by-products. Gross losses contain possible reinsurances 
and other features which will make the net losses more bearable 
to the naked eye. And so on, gross items are reduced, by sub- 
tractions, to net results. 5. Opposite of net. [Which see.] 

" Gross profits, net loss— 
Gross failure, fired boss." 

— From Dainty Insurance Conceptions. Canto IX. 



H 



Haz ^ard, n. [It. azzardo.} 1. That which tends to menace 
or endanger the security of a risk. 2. The spice of life. 3. In- 
surance companies are, in fact, but collectors of data or hazards of 
various kinds, which they compile and call experience. They pay 
well for every individual specimen of hazard which they add to 
their collections, and many have thus, through long years of re- 
search, secured exhibits which represent fabulous expenditures of 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



money. 4. Life and accident companies are connoisseurs of tlie 
numerous styles and classifications of hazards that tend to effect 
a premature separation between the soul and its mortal tenement 
or which cause damage or disfiguration to said tenement. An 
enthusiastic company has been known to pay as high as $5,000 
in cash for a dynamite case when the subject had been distributed 
simultaneously over an entire congressional district. Others have 
bought in job lots of church-social ptomaine-poisoned specimens. 
Of a verity their versatility ranges from the subtle caress of a 
carnivorous chigger to the awful end which punctuates with a 
period the Doreically illustrated career of the victim of an aveng- 
ing hand of fate. 5. Fire insurance companies naturally make a 
specialty of fire hazards, and what a company does not know about 
gasoline, benzine, defective wiring, open stairways, valued-policy 
lav/s, odorous moral hazards, etc., it will learn in time if its assets 
hold out. 

See External Hazard, Extra Hazardous. 

"The air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we — the water we bathe in— in 
all these lurk hazards we wot not of ; and it is well we wot not." 

—From Stolen Thunder. Vol. XXIX, Chap. VIII, Page 10. 



Haz-'ard ous, adj. 1. Dangerous. 2. As an insurance term 
it generally applies to describe the nature of occupations or pur- 
suits, and is governed in degree by the suddenness with which 
something may fly up and hit the occupied or pursuer or other- 
wise cancel his mundane engagement. 

Hoi ^ o caust, n. A fire which is attended by serious loss of 
life. Generally the direct result of greed on the part of the owner 
of a building who is too stingy to provide proper exits. Exits 
cost money. [No. The word does not originate from hole and 
cost. That is merely a coincidence, and the fact that the simi- 
larity struck your notice is merely an indication that you are a 
punno-maniac] 

Home - Of ' flee, home-of'fis, n. [Of the nineteenth century 
vintage.]. 1. The executive fountain-head of an insurance com- 
pany. The inner circle, the center of influence, the sanctum 
sanctorum. 2. Home-oflaces are generally found in large cities, 

— 86 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



though a number of healthy specimens have been discovered in 
unpretentious towns and even villages. The more vigorous are 
commoner east of the Alleghenies than west, due to the early de- 
velopment of that section and its bracing financial atmosphere. 
Some of the most imposing specimens of the world are found in 
New York City, quite a number having attained several hundred 
feet in height. Hartford, Conn., though not a large city, is also 
world-famed for its home-offices. 3. To the local agent, the home- 
office is a mysterious, awesome somewhere, from which an inex- 
haustible supply of blotters, calendars and other necessities of 
the business flow. A place which he approaches in unshod rever- 
ence if fate and courage permit him to visit the shrine. A place 
from which he returns to his colleagues surrounded by an air 
of acknowledged superiority. 



I 



Im pair ' ed Cap ^ i tal, n. [A couple of words that have be- 
come so sociable in the opening part of the twentieth century that 
their final conjugalation by a hyphen is daily expected.] 1. A cap- 
ital which has been more or less damaged. 2. A capital from 
which the nap, or surplus, has been worn in spots. 3. It sounds 
anomalous, but is no less true that the capital of a new insur- 
ance company is more likely to become impaired than that of one 
which has been long in use, but well cared for. A company v/hich 
attempts to open shop with only a desk, a few chairs, a typewriter, 
some supplies and a bran new unprotected capital can hardly ex- 
pect to do business long without impairing the latter more or 
less. The trouble comes from the necessity which devolves upon 
said capital to support the growing reserve and do other work for 
which a truly aristocratic capital is unfit. The capital is intended 
simply to look impressive, dignified and happy, but when it has 
to sit up night after night with a growing reserve and a teething 
expense account it naturallj^ looks worn and tired in the mornings 
and wears rings under its eyes and other cheap jewelry. Still 
young and vigorous capitals, blessed with exceptional constitu- 
tions (and by-laws), have been known to do all their own house- 
work unaided for some time without breaking down or showing 
signs of impairment until the company was able to afford a sur- 

-87 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



plus, that natural and necessary servant of a contented capital. 4. 
Although Impairment of capital is to be viewed as reprehensible, 
it is not necessarily a sign of certain decay. It may be mended 
and the repairment may be so neatly and substantially done that 
its utility as a capital will be as good as originally. Still it will 
ever after encounter archaeologists who will point to where the 
crack was and shrug their shoulders and show other signs of 
morbid delight. 5. Any insurance company having an impaired 
capital had better take it to the repair shop at once as delays are 
dangerous and an impaired capital, like an impaired boiler, may 
transform the true inwardness of the blooming plant into sad but 
true outwardness at any unannounced moment. 
See Capital. 

Im paired ' Lives, n. 1. Lives more or less damaged from 
the wear and tear of every-day usage. Most people are careless 
with their lives and treat them as if they had at least a dozen and 
could afford to waste a few. It is not at all uncommon to notice 
one being left exposed to a twenty-four karat pneumonia draft, 
or left out in the rain, or overworked without extra pay, or half 
fed, or worried to death. Some men too attempt to pr.eserve 
theirs in various alcoholic products, and some cure theirs with 
tobacco smoke. These are but a few of the causes of impaired 
lives. 2. Impaired lives are commonly discoveries on the part of 
life insurance medical examiners; for a man may unknowingly 
be using a life that has a large crack across the left lung or a 
heart valve with the leather almost worn through or a punctured 
kidney; in fact, a multitude of defects may exist of which he is 
not cognizant until his context has been carefully perused by the 
lynx-eyed physician. 3. Some companies make special provisions 
for insuring impaired lives where the defects are not too serious, 
but, generally speaking, from an insurance standpoint an im- 
paired life is like an impaired egg. 

Syn. — Substandard Lives. 

See Rejected Risk. 

In cen ' di a rism, n. An incendiary act. The occupation of 
a fire-bug. 

In cen ^ diary, in sen' de a re, n. [Pollock ynskendeneski.'] 
1. An unhanged criminal. 2. One who maliciously burns up prop- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



erty. 3. A flaw in the social fabric. 4. His Royal Blazes, Nero, 
among other pre-eminent evil traits, was the arch-incendiary of 
the world. The only thing that can be said in his favor is that 
he did not burn Rome to get the insurance money — at least there 
has been no open accusation filed at the time we go to press. The 
insurance idea seems to be an outgrowth of more advanced civili- 
zation and probably originated since the establishment of the in- 
surance departments in our systems of social economy. 5. Insur- 
ance companies are so fond of incendiaries that they offer large 
rewards for specimens delivered to them in cages or packed in ice. 
If an especially active specimen is known to be operating in a 
community, the reward is increased from time to time until he is 
caught or retires. 6. In some communities dead incendiaries are 
much preferred to live ones, and when one is caught it is quickly 
revised to suit the popular taste by means of a rope and the limb 
of a tree. Many incendiaries, however, escape captivity, and this 
encourages others to try a hand. 7. Some courts show suspicious 
leniency towards this class of malefactors. A good fire mar- 
shal law, vigorously applied where needed, is an excellent remedy. 

Syn. Fire-Bug, Pyro-Maniac. 

See Conflagration. 



In con test ^ a ble, adj. [Somewhat of a syndicate of Latin 
words; in not, cum with, testis witness and suflBx — ahilis^ 1. 
Not contestable. 2. Immune from court scrutinj^ criticism and 
discouragement. 3. With the growth of the life insurance busi- 
ness and the experience of accumulating years, the companies 
gradually became more and more liberal in their forms of con- 
tracts as they found justification and as they were pressed by 
competition for public favor. The incontestable policy was one 
of the fruits of this evolution. 4. Settlement usually can not be 
denied on an incontestable policy except for non-payment of pre- 
mium, and it may be made incontestable from date of issue or 
after it has been in force a certain length of time. 5. Unrestrict- 
edly incontestable policies are sometimes criticised as detrimental 
in several ways. It is claimed that the holder of such a policy 
may get to brooding over how much more he would be worth 
as a death claim than he is as an animated premium payer, and 
in a moment of misdirected philanthropy may accomplish the 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



transformation. Nor are such instances foreign to actual experi- 
ence. However, companies will doubtless be able to continue the 
writing of incontestable policies without fear of depopulating the 
earth. 

In dem ^ nity, n. [L. indemrdtas.l 1. Compensation for loss. 

2. In its broadest sense our contemporary Worcester states that 
it implies "security or exemption from danger, loss, injury or 
punishment." An occasional genius seems to place this liberal 
construction on an insurance policy, but insurance companies, 
still being limited to the restrictions of finite possibilities, are 
unable to qualify for such a high standard. Of course it is not 
safe to conjecture or to speak too positively as to the future, but 
it will probably be some time yet before companies will furnish 
immunity instead of the present brand of indemnity. 3. The 
stock in trade of insurance companies. It varies in quality like 
other purchasable utilities and, in this, as in other cases, the best 
is the cheapest. There are always lots of imitations on the mar- 
ket which are adulterated or altogether worthless. The genuine 
article is always stamped with the State seal, although this is not 
a safe guide, as the judgment of politicians on matters of finance, 
of however honorable intent, is not notoriously infallible. 4. The 
range of the classes of indemnity which may be purchased is only 
limited by the number and variety of styles of human financial 
misfortune and woe — fire, life, accident, health, etc., etc. 
See Insurance. 

Indivld'ual Un ' der writers, n. 1. A bunch of dis- 
gruntled property owners who are tired of paying "exorbitant" 
fire insurance rates and get together for mutual sympathy and 
interinsurance. Naturally composed of classes on which the rate 
has been high because of heavy losses, and commonly even then 
not as high as it should be. When such flock together the result 
is easily imagined. The selection being bad to begin with, the 
cost will be still higher in the end. But they like it, so let them. 

See Mutuals, etc. 

In dus ' tri al In sur ' ance, in dus'tre al in shur'ans, n. [Fr. 
industriel.'] 1. Insurance for the industrial classes. Not so named 

-90- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

because of the work necessary to write it. An established sys- 
tem in life insurance, though it has been tried to a certain ex- 
tent in the other branches of underwriting. Insurance for small 
amounts ranging from a week's wages to a month's salary v/ith 
premiums payable in weekly installments. 3. Industrial insur- 
ance companies are generally recognized as robbers — robbers of 
poorhouses and infirmaries, cheating them of many victims. 4. 
Classically referred to as "penny-ante insurance." 5. Its growth, 
which is the marvel of the age, is as rapid as the growth of a 
popular public sentiment, and as substantial as the Rock of Gib- 
raltar. 6. It impresses life insurance upon the masses as a neces- 
sity instead of upon the few as a luxury. 



In her ' ent Haz ' ard, n. Inherited hazard. The natural 
hazard. 

See Internal Hazard. 

Inim'ical Leg is la'tfon, in im' i kal-led jis la' shun, n. 
[Both of Latin pedigree.] 1. Legislation detrimental to insur- 
ance interests. An affliction to which all insurance companies are 
prone. It breaks out in various forms which become epidemic 
whenever they appear, usually affecting all the companies ope- 
rating in a State. The two most virulent types are valued-policy 
and anti-trust laws. Besides these there are many others which 
keep the companies wearing flannel rags around their necks and 
dosing with quinine, camphor, increased rates, reduced expenses 
and profanity. Though valued-policy and anti-trust lav/s commit 
such ravages on insurance systems one attack does not make a 
company immune from future visitations. The number of times 
a company may take either is limited only by the number of 
States. 3. Inimical legislation is generally caused by the unsani- 
tary condition of the morals of legislators who recognize in such 
acts a chance for grand-stand plays in the sight of their constitu- 
ents or a club which will put them in financial "touch" with the 
lobby. 4. Vaccination, performed by injecting a tincture of gold 
virus into the legislator, has been tried, but legislators learn to 
like it and to expect it, and so this purchase of legislative bodies 
has been abandoned to a great degree, for it is as expensive as it 
is to buy the ashes which always follow such measures. Besides, 

— 91 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



the voters, who are also the property-owners, in time learn to 
their sorrow the folly and costliness of unjust insurance laws 
and at the next election they insert a large spike into the bubbles 
of aspiration nursed by the lads who voted for them. 5. Inimical- 
legislation is one of the strongest arguments for national super- 
vision. [See same.] 

See Anti-Trust Lfaws; Valued-Policy Laws; etc. 



In spec^tion, n. The act of inspecting. 
See Inspector. 

In spec ^ tion Bu ' reau, n. Not a piece of furniture, but a 
department or office for inspecting risks and making rates. Usu- 
ally equipped with a chief inspector, several little inspectors, a 
clerk or clerks, maps, sample fire extinguishing devices, insurance 
journals, an air of autocracy and an audible expense account. 

See Compact, etc. 

Compare Board. 



In spec' tor, in spek' tor, n. [L. in and specio.'] 1. One 
who or that which inspects. 2. An individual of consuming curi- 
osity who employs his time investigating risks and reporting his 
discoveries to fire insurance companies. Inspectors are a natural 
product — that is to say, born, not made. The ideal inspector is 
all eyes — figuratively speaking, of course; and "eyes," not "I's," 
Those that are all "I's" are not (i)deal. [Written permission 
to use this in polite society will be granted by the perpetrator 
upon request, accompanied by return postage.] An inspector who 
is profitable to the companies sees everything in a plant or prop- 
erty that could have any bearing, immediate or remote, on the 
fire hazard. He sees in imagination just what any fire with 
natural tastes and aptitudes would do wherever it might take a 
notion to begin business in a building, and just what features of 
construction or destruction would encourage its branching out 
and expansion. The inspection slip to him is merely suggestive, 
as every risk is individual and presents conditions entirely char- 
acteristic, and must stand on its own merits. A careful inspector 
can save his companies the amount of his salary every day he 

— 92- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

works (but can not always make them see it). 3. In life insur- 
ance, one who goes about inspecting or auditing agency accounts. 

" Th« suspected inspector expected respect." 

—From Insurance Kindergarten Homilies. Page X. 

In stall ^ ment, n. [L. in and Ger. stal.'\ 1. A specified part 

payment on a matured life insurance policy. 2. Installment poli- 
cies are one of the wise products of latter days, the direct result of 
an effort to offset the consequences of feminine incapacity busi- 
nesswise and heartless human cupidity. It was learned by re- 
peated experience that the purpose of life insurance was often de- 
feated where the beneficiary was a woman unacquainted with 
business ways and, not knowing how to handle the large sum left 
suddenly to her care and disposition, she soon spent the principal 
or. lost it through injudicious investments and was reduced to the 
very condition from which her protector had hoped to save her, 
or she, through misplaced confidence, lost the money to the ad- 
vantage of some unprincipled knave, specimens of which un- 
healthy microbes are always on the lookout for such victims. To 
defeat these unfortunate conditions many companies issue install- 
ment policies which, upon the death of the holder, are paid in peri- 
odical installments, which are continued until the full face of the 
policy is satisfied or until the beneficiary follows the party of the 
second part. 3, Life insurance installments are the pension pay- 
ments of the Grand Army of Regenerates. 4. Installments paid 
annually are also known as annuities. The acquaintance is also 
said to be highly enjoyable. 

In sur ^ a ble In ^ ter est, n. [Idiom. U. S.] 1. A connection 
between two lives which, terminated by the death of one, means 
financial loss to the other — the one said to possess the insurable 
interest. 2. The dollars and cents interest of one person in the 
life of another. 3. In the United States the insurable interest fea- 
ture is made the sine qua non of a life insurance contract, though 
in England it is considered a minor detail. It is a common prac- 
tice over there to note the health bulletins on the King or Queen 
every morning, and, if symptoms of an early decline appear, the 
venturesome take out a policy of a few thousand pounds on their 
beloved monarch or monarchess, and then spend the next few 

-93- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



weeks while the policy is in force in a purgatory of conflicting 
emotions — patriotic anxiety that the insured may live and a sor- 
did lucre anxiety that the insured will live. This happy practice 
is not confined to crowned heads, but M. P.'s in silk tiles, prom- 
inent authors and poets in crush felt hats, and even American 
magnates in Panamas are also certain to become principals in 
thousands of policies of which they are ignorant, and their state 
of robust health comes to be viewed by many as a national calam- 
ity. To say the least this is embarrassing. (Note. — It just oc- 
curs to me that this is why I have never yet gone to England. I 
had supposed that there was some other reason.) 3. In America 
we have found that we can get rid of our great men more rapidly 
and effectively by means of the trolley car, the automobile, ice- 
cream socials. Anarchists and the deadly strenuous life, so the 
law has demanded that a due regard be given to the important 
sanitary subject of insurable interest. While the American is 
dodging death (and taxes) in multitudinous forms, he at least 
has the comfort of knowing that he is not pursued by the anxious 
glances and the infernal machines of a horde of unknown bene- 
fiiciaries. He has the satisfaction of knowing just what individuals 
will hail his demise with a burst of unquenchable grief and a 
wild scramble to be present at the distribution of the fruits of his 
life's labors. We Americans point to this feature of our E Pluri- 
bus Unum institution as not the least of its ornaments. 4. An 
insurable interest may result from the natural dependency of one 
upon another, as wife upon husband, children upon father, mother 
upon son, etc. upon etc., or may be created because of a debt or 
financial obligation between men not related. It is voluntary or 
involuntary, as the case may be. 

In sur ' ance, in shur' ans, n. 1. An agreement to indemnify 
in case of the occurrence of a certain contingency in considera- 
tion of a payment called a premium. But what's the use of de- 
fining this word? You all know it in all its phases from actual 
daily experience. It is like trying to tell a blacksmith what an 
anvil is. 

In sur'ance Com tnis'sion er, in shur'ans kom mish'un er, n. 
[Coined in eighteen hundred and something. The exact date is 

— 94- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



rubbed off.] 1. One empowered to supervise insurance interests. 
2. That official vested with autocratic control of the insurance 
companies operating in his State. [Colloq. U. S.] 3. A title at 
once an honor and a disgrace, exalted and debased, held sacred 
and abused, praised and cussed. 4. The office is generally a po- 
litical plum and is handed out with no thought of the recipient's 
qualifications insurancewise. It is natural then that many insur- 
ance commissioners exist for revenue only. The office is always 
furnished with an assortment of clubs, alias sand-bags, alias laws, 
which are used with much personal profit by unscrupulous offi- 
cials. A systematic use of these clubs is known as a "raid" or a 
"hold-up" and is as honorable and as welcome as those conduct- 
ed by professional safe-crackers. 5. It has been asked, "What is 
so rare as a day in June?" A no more fitting reply could be 
made than, "An honest, upright, fair-minded, well-meaning in- 
surance commissioner who conducts his office with integrity for 
the best interests of his fellow-citizens and with fairness towards 
the companies under his supervision." There have been a num- 
ber of such men and they are always thoroughly appreciated — 
after they are gone. 

Syn. — State Insurance Superintendent, Commissioner of In- 
surance. 

See State Supervision. 



In sur ^ ance De part ' ment, n. [Barbarism.] 1. A State 
office, primarily for the collection of fees, taxes and perquisites 
from insurance companies and secondarily for the supervision of 
their operations. 2. Some insurance departments are conducted 
with a conscientious regard for their highest possibilities for 
good — nor are such instances markedly rare, be it recorded to the 
credit of the officials in charge; but others have been miscon- 
ducted with a conscienceless disregard for anything but their 
lowest possibilities as a means of personal gain — nor are such 
cases exceptionally rare, be it also recorded, and to the shame of 
the offenders. 3. The functions of an insurance department are 
to collect taxes and fees, issue licenses to companies and agents, 
to examine companies, to see that legal requirements are complied 
with, to prosecute malefactors, to answer questions, to tree wild- 
cats, to order receiverships, etc. Most insurance departments 

— 95 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



also find time each year to issue a neatly-bound volume of poems 
entitled "Annual Report" or "Another Year Slides Softly By." 
These are always remarkable for their figurative language and 
pure English and are undoubtless (coined) valuable additions to 
our literature. 4. Insurance department also signifies the insur- 
ance branch of an office which carries on several lines of business 
all under one tent. 

See Insurance Commissioner. 

"The receipts of the insurance department for the year 1901," etc. 

—From /,7th Ann. Rep. Mass. Part I, XIX. 

In sur ^ ance Jour ^ nal, n. [Typographical.] 1. A periodic 
or semi-periodic publication devoted to the interests of insurance 
and its publisher, or vice versa. 2. The insurance journal is 
always free to admit that its presence is a great boon to insurance 
interests, and that without it the operations of insurance compa- 
nies would be but as the blind gropings of lost planets in meas- 
ureless chaos or the futile endeavors of an absent-minded editor 
to find his shears when they are hanging on their proper and con- 
spicuous hook at the side of his desk. 3. The province of' an in- 
surance journal is like unto that of a mirror, showing the com- 
panies to themselves as they appear to others. But there are mir- 
rors with flat surfaces, mirrors with convex surfaces, others con- 
cave, compound, complex, cracked, and some with no surface at 
all, which either hand over the reflection as it is or twist it so its 
own author would not know it. There may not be as many vari- 
eties of insurance journals as there are of mirrors, but some of 
the companies think so. A good silver back is necessary to proper 
reflection on the part of a mirror. With an insurance journal sil- 
ver is good, gold is better, but even a greenback will do. [It is 
not necessary to carry the figure farther.] 4. Insurance journals 
also print history — current and ancient — besides much biography, 
chronology and fiction, with occasional sprinklings of verse. One 
authority claims that at certain times of the year, presumably at 
hog-killing time, they publish link sausages, bologna, Wiener- 
wurst and pickled pig's feet. This has been denied by some as 
an attempt to disfigure the fair escutcheon of a noble institution, 
while others are inclined to acquiesce. 

See Insurance Journalism. 

-96 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

In sur ^ ance Jour ^ naS ist, n. 1. One who or that which 
writes on insurance topics for publication. 2. A species of news- 
paper man which makes a specialty of insurance. It is com- 
monly found in a lair or nest called a sanctum, where it gorges 
itself on exchanges, statistics, annual reports, statistics, mortuary 
tables, statistics, paste, statistics and other insurance literary 
products and impedimenta. It can devour, digest and compile a 
dozen pages of statistical tables while the ordinary mortal is find- 
ing which way to hold the book to read the headings of the col- 
umns. 3. Whatever may be said to the contrary, the insurance 
journalist is normally an optimist. He can usually find merit 
where the competing world at large sees nothing but mismanage- 
ment and ultimate destruction. He keeps plugging away for re- 
forms that never come, but is always cheerfully and hopefully 
persistent. He beards rebating, twisting, rate-cutting and slander 
in their dens. He hacks off the Medusa-like heads week after 
week, only to find them hissing continually in his ears. He is 
always ready and able to give advice on the most knotty propo- 
sitions. He maintains a comprehensive grasp on all branches of 
underwriting, and is as much at home in discussing schedule rat- 
ing in fire insurance or reserve values based on the Actuaries' 
Tables of Mortality and three per cent, interest in life insurance 
as he is in treating on the true factor of safety for reserves on 
liability business. He is the clearing house, as it were, of the in- 
surance world. He can advise a new company how to go into the 
business; he can advise an old one how to get out. He points out 
mistakes and their remedies. He heralds merit and its reT%^ards. 
At certain seasons of the year, would you believe it, he edits sau- 
sage links and other pork products. He handles the shears with 
the grace of an old swordsman with his foils. The salary of a 
railroad president? No, hardly. He works for the love of it. 

Send in for a subscription blank. 

In sur ' ance Of ' f ice, n. An office dedicated to the business 
of insurance. 

See Insurance Department, Agency. 

In sur ' ance Pa trol ', n. See Salvage Corps. 

I. D.— 7. 

—97— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

In sur ^ ance Trust, in shur' ans trust, n. [Colloq. U. S.] 
1. An imaginary bug-a-boo. 2. A term commonly used by leg- 
islators to inflame themselves into passion and "acts" of violence. 
3. A mythical financial monster supposed to devour the sub- 
stance of helpless merchants, manufacturers and citizens of all 
classes. Accounts of its appearance by eye-witnesses are printed 
periodically in the daily papers, which are as well accredited as 
accounts of the annual visitations of the sea-serpent at certain 
seaside resorts, though more generally accepted. It is described 
as having great, fiery jaws, which close with a crash of thunder 
upon vast fortunes which are brought to it by great tentacled 
arms stretching across the continent. 

See Octopus, Trusts, Monopoly, Corporations, Capital. 



In sur ^ ant, n. One who is insured. A member of the ma- 
jority nowadays and a person of sound sense and foresight. 



In sure', in shure', v. t. [O. F. insurer.'] 1. To contract to 
indemnify or to pay a certain sum of money upon the occurrence 
of a possible disastrous contingency, such as fire, accident, flood, 
tornado, matrimony, twins, etc., or of an unavoidable certainty 
such as death. Besides death, there is said to be no other sure 
thing on earth but taxes, insurance against which is not directly 
issued so far as authorities are aware, though doctors, lawyers 
and fashion are doing their best to insure their chronic clients 
as little annoyance from this style of the inevitable as possible. 
Some also escape for a time by not owning anything and keeping 
continually on the move. This remedy has its drawbacks, which 
are greater than the actual physical inconvenience of paying 
taxes, and, if indulged in generally, would doubtless seriously 
impair the atmosphere of domesticity for which the sociological 
climate of North America is famous. 2. To assure or to guaran- 
tee immunity from. This is one of the general applications of 
the word, and has been erroneously taken by some as a function 
of insurance companies, but those who have purchased fire insur- 
ance under the impression that it was fireproofing, or accident in- 
surance believing it to be a modern bath in the Styx, or health 
insurance with the idea that it meant the installation of a boiler- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



iron digestive apparatus and a copper-lined capillary system, or 
life insurance believing it to be a certificate of immortality, have 
generally been disappointed. 
Syns. Assure, Ensure. 

" Insure your house, insure your life, 
Insure your health, insure your wife, 
Insure all you hope to keep 
And so insure a good night's sleep," 

—From Insurance Jingles. Page 2. 



In sur ^ ed, n. Same as insurant. 



In sur ' er, n. One who or that which insures. Generally a 
corporation or an association. 

In ter me ^ di ate, adj. [L. L. inter mediatus.l 1. Our face- 
tious contemporary, the "Standard Dictionary," among other un- 
complimentary insinuations as to the good character of this 
word, calls it an "interlobate" and a "syzygetic function." The 
crying need of an impartial and unprejudiced reference book on 
respectable insurance terms is at once made manifest, and the 
compiler of "Insurance Definitions" is encouraged to grasp his 
No. 2 pencil with new determination and interest. 2. The "Stand- 
ard" to the contrary notwithstanding, "intermediate" is a simple 
term applied to a class of life insurance policies which fill the 
narrow space between ordinary and industrial. First came ordi- 
nary, then industrial, whereupon underwriters discovered that 
still some of the great mass of humanity was slipping through 
their nets, and, in order to hold these, the intermediate depart- 
ment was created. Policies ranging from $500 to $1,000 and from 
the north pole to the south may be acquired in this class. The 
premium-paying arrangements are also adjusted to fit — oftener 
than on the ordinary plan and commonly less frequent than the 
industrial. 3. The intermediate department might also be desig- 
nated as the preparatory department in the life insurance educa- 
tional scheme, connecting the graded and high school industrial 
stage to the college ordinary stage, but if you do not care to have 
it so designated, let it pass. 4. Sometimes called sub-ordinary. 

—99— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



In ter-'na! Haz^'ard, n. [From internal and hazard.'] 1. 
A hazard within the risk. 2. Inside information. 3. Moral haz- 
ards, like consciences, are generally internal hazards. Among 
other internal hazards are furnaces, electric wiring, manufactur- 
ing processes, family ructions, children and matches, hired girls, 
overinsurance, etc. 

Syn. Inherent Hazard. 

See External Hazard, Hazard, et al. 

" An internal hazard eke may grow 
To proportions quite infernal, 
And jolt a company off the earth 
To Elysium's fields eternal." 
—From Insurance Tliad. I,ines 89 to 92 inclusive. 



In ' ven tory, n. [L. inventarium.'] 1. A list or schedule of 
stock or chattels covered by an insurance policy. 2. An evidence 
of what was. 3. An inventory is considered of such importance 
that it is assigned permanent quarters in the fireproof safe, 
where it is supposed to be placed every night. Occasionally an 
inventory gets left outside and then the place burns down. The 
exact chemical spontaneous combustion properties which de- 
velop in an inventory that has been exposed to the night air have 
not been satisfactorily analyzed by chemists, but underwriters are 
inclined to believe that it is some kind of a metaphysical stunt 
in the nature of mind's influence over matter. Where such a cir- 
cumstance arises the adjusters are inclined to view the proprietor 
with more suspicion than they do the inventory and that unfor- 
tunate is liable to feel sympathy for the transgressor whose "way 
is hard." 

"And is it not strange," said the merchant, "to think that I had never failed 
to lock the inventory in the safe before?" 
"Yes, it is not," said the adjuster. 

— From Innocent Incinerations. Page 711. 



In vest ^ ment, n. [L. investio, meaning to clothe in (doubt- 
less the old Roman who coined the term lisped and meant "to 
close in").] 1. Something in which to put insurance assets with 
the hope of recovering same with interest. If the funds are put 
in the safe or an old sock for future reference they can not be 

— 100 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



said to be invested, for the interest or dividend element is lack* 
ing. An old sock, however, is sometimes preferable as a recepta- 
cle for trust funds as compared with the investments made by 
some companies. 2. It is even a more critical and serious task to 
care for the monetary accumulations of an insurance company 
than it is to tap the premium well-springs from which they are 
derived. The treasurer of a large insurance company is like a 
coal passer on an ocean greyhound — continually shoveling an in- 
exhaustible pile of "cash on hand" into an ever-hungry fire-box of 
"invested assets." The steamboat stoker has the advantage of a 
rest at the end of each trip. 3. Investments are like horses, and 
it is a shrewd treasurer who does not accumulate among the good 
an occasional specimen that is wind-broke, balky, spavined, blind, 
doctored, tricky, or is afflicted with the heaves or bad hoofs, or 
stumbles. Still, they become very expert and they rarely make a 
poor bargain. 

See Securities. 



I ' ron - Safe, i' urn-safe, n. [An amicable combination of 
Gothic and Roman architecture: eisarns and salvus.l 1. A heavy 
iron box common to business offices for the safe-keeping of in- 
surance policies and other papers and books of value. Although 
safes are usually mounted on four small wheels, they are readily 
distinguished from a wagon or an automobile. 2. Most iron-safes 
are black, though occasionally a sorrel one is encountered. Cus- 
tomarily they wear a Millais landscape athwart their portals. 
This is done to engage the attention of would-be safe-crackers 
and distract them from their nefarious projects. It is not specific. 
Many a safe with a quiet pastoral scene upon its bosom has been 
maliciously awakened from its night's rest and forced to divulge 
its inmost secrets by means of a nitro-glycerin serenade. 3. In 
the daily course of business nitro-grycerin is not used to open the 
safe. A mysterious string of figures known as the "combination," 
if politely addressed to an eccentric and exceedingly touchy little 
knob just to the east of the aforesaid landscape will often have 
the desired effect and not spoil the safe for future usefulness. The 
combination is sometimes mislaid in one of the many pigeonholes 
of the memory. It may be recovered by standing on one's head in 
a contemplative attitude and reading it off of the under side of 

— 101 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



the cashier's desk, where it has been filed for just such an emer- 
gency. 4. The iron-safe clause common to fire insurance policies, 
requires the keeping of books and inventories in a fireproof safe 
where no water will be spilled on them in case of a fire and cause 
the accounts to run together and multiply. 



I^ron=Safe Clause, n. A clause in a policy encouraging 
the iron-safe industry. See above. 



Is'^olated, adj. See Detached. 



Joint In sur ^ ance, n. 1. Insurance made out to two or 
more persons jointly who have a joint interest in the property in- 
sured. 2. Colloq. (slang) — Insurance on a joint. Generally a 
moral hazard. Always a special hazard. Rates should be ad- 
vanced 25 per cent, flat and joint should be sprinkled — with for- 
maldehyde. [Note. — This term was inserted here in order that 
"J" might not be without a representative.] 



K 



Knock '' er, nok' er, n. [Abys. noTk, meaning "hammer."] 
1. One who or that which knocks. 2. A hammer thrower. 3. Ich. 
— A member of the well-known and renowned species of astero- 
spondyli, which, as all are aware, are a sub-order of sharks with 
vertebra whose radiating calcified laminae predominate over the 
concentric. It has myopic green eyes that, acting in harmony 
with a digestive apparatus, dyspeptic because of defective plumb- 
ing, causes it to take a melancholy view of things in general and 
a jealous delight in the mistakes and misfortunes of others. It 
gleefully makes use of its two-headed hammer before referred to 
(a description of it is said to be lurking among some of those 
pictographs you stumbled through ten or a dozen lines back) 

-102- 



k 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

•whenever it discovers a flaw, slight or serious, in the work of 
some co-laborer, or any defect, real or imagined, which may be 
unfortunate enough to fall in the range of its narrow vision. By 
subtle knocking it manages to injure the object of its envy, often 
one who erroneously considers it a friend. It is recognized as a 
pest, and a bounty will be paid for its dorsal fin wherever col- 
lectable. 

P. S. — You notice there are no other "K's" in this widely- 
known, popular and standard work (adv.). This is because no 
reputable insurance word or term could be found to associate with 
the one here presented. 



Lapse, laps, v. t. Contraction of "collapse," meaning to for- 
feit by default of premium payments. 

Lapsed - Pol ' i cy, lapst-pol'isy, n. [L. lapsus, meaning to 
"let 'er slide."] 1. A policy that has run down because of lack of 
financial lubrication. 2. An evidence of a man's misfortune, over- 
confidence or negligence. 3. A gross mistake. 4. Altogether a 
lapsed-policy is a dangerous proposition. In fire insurance it is 
known as an unrenewed expiration and is always followed by a 
fire (generally a total loss). In life insurance the person whose 
life it covered dies suddenly of heart failure or meets some other 
style of death equally fatal, and the would-have-been beneficiaries 
take the next Pullman sleeper for the poorhouse. In accident in- 
surance the fool-hardy tempter of fate falls off of, onto, under, 
over, through, into, against or down something, is blown up, 
kicked down, mangled, wrecked, drowned or shot, or is assaulted 
by one or all of his wife's relatives as soon as his Nemesis dis- 
covers the fact. Note. — If agents would impress this upon their 
clients more faithfully there would be fewer lapses and a corre- 
sponding decrease in the fire loss, an increase in the average age 
of man and a diminished demand for court plaster and surgical 
operations. 

"It is safer to have not insured 

Than to have a policy that has lapsed." 

—From Hoiayre. 

— 103- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

Le ' gai Re quire ^ ment, n. [Mostly plural.] Statutory re- 
quirements to which insurance companies must conform if they 
wish to live in peace. 

See State Supervision. 

Le ' gal Re serve', n. Reserve required by law. 
See Reserve. 

Leg is la ' tor, n. [L. lex and lator.l 1. One who or that 
which legislates. 2. Zool. Belonging to the lexfacto lexbrako 
species, being a degenerate form of the genus homo. Known com- 
monly, as the boodle-bug, from its supposed favorite 
diet. It is found in all parts of the globe where 
a republican form of climate prevails, and is so abun- 
dant in the United States that it is coming to be classed 
among the pests. Like mosquitoes, woodticks and seventeen-year 
locusts, it has its place in the realm of nature, but excessive zeal 
and numbers on its part do not win it popular acclaim. As its 
corrupted name implies, it feeds chiefly on boodle, which is fur- 
nished it by lobbyists and others who may wish to see it perform. 
In some States it is a perennial, while in others it is biennial. 
Some scientists have been investigating the feasibility of crossing 
it with the seventeen-year locust and making it a centennial or a 
world's fair, but with little prospect of success. It is of especial 
importance to insurance interests, as it delights to stick its bill 
(entitled an act, etc.) into the hides of what it calls corporations 
and trusts, being led thereto by the thirst for boodle and popu- 
larity. As it gathers in swarms and makes its onslaughts in a 
body, the results are often disastrous to the victim. 

See Inimical Legislation. 

Lev ^ el Pre''niiuni, n. [A. S. lae^el and L. 'praemia.'\ 1. A 
premium which is the same throughout the life of the policy. 2. 
A premium having an altitude which maintains an unchanging 
distance from zero. 3. A level premium is no humorist, like the 
flexible premium [which see]; it goes along the same old way, 
never springing surprises. Any one who dotes on being jarred occa- 
sionally should not invest in level premiums. A man with a level 
premium gets so he pays it without thinking, and almost forgets 
that his life is insured. When it comes to life insurance, most 

— 104 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



thinking men prefer an asphalt pavement to a corduroy road, and 
thus the level premium is quite popular. 
See Premium. 

Compare Flexible Premium, Step Rate, Stipulated Premium, 
etc. 

" The Level Premium Packet guarantees a smooth passage." 

—From Life's Guide Book. ♦'Ad." on back cover. 

Liabil^ity, n. (ties, pi.). 1. The state of being liable. 2. 
Responsibility for an obligation contingent upon a possible dis- 
aster or occurrence of a contingency implied in an insurance pol- 
icy. A policy without the liability feature is as useful as a watch 
without a mainspring, and is known as a "unilateral" contract. 
3. Though the liability feature exists in every properly drawn 
insurance contract, it may remain dormant throughout the life 
of the policy, never becoming a tangible reality through the occur- 
rence of the contingency against vrhich it provides. 4. The test 
of an insurance company is its behavior in the presence of a ma- 
terialized liability. The honest and right-minded institution is 
equal to the occasion and calmly and forthwithly satisfies the ob- 
ligation; but when a company, in the presence of an incarnated 
liability, becomes confused, side steps, hesitates, hems and haws, 
begins to interpret the significance of various nonpareil safety 
clauses in the contract which are of poster type importance as 
affecting liability, then you can make up your mind that the offi- 
cers of said aforementioned concern are not operating same for 
the sake of their undermined physical condition, but have an eye 
out for the main chance, of which the interests of the policyhold- 
ers are not the dominant element. If you are the possessor of one 
of their typographical productions and it is not unfortunately 
through the one in which you are immediately interested that you 
have become aware of their style of architecture, it is advisable 
to surrender it for as much or as little returned premium and 
disappointment as it may be able to produce. 5. The liability of 
an agent — to the company, to the assured, to the State, to the ac- 
quisition of sudden wealth, to annihilation and to weal or woe — 
presents a realm of thought so boundless that one becomes word- 
less in contemplation thereof. 

Li ''cense, leigh' sense, v. t. [L. licet, it is allowed.] 1. To 
grant authority or permission to transact business. 2. Licensing 

— 105 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



is one of the profitable pastimes of State insurance departments. 
There may be some question as to the term "pastime," but that it 
is "profitable" is certain. 3. Licensing is generally a monopoly 
enjoyed by one office in each State, and any one who thinks hd 
might break into the business in a modest way and introduce a 
little competition by opening an independent license bureau will 
find that he is up against one of the most pronounced trusts of 
a trust age. The State insurance departments have completely 
subsidized the entire administrative mechanism of the Nation to 
their ends, from the President and Congress, Governors and Leg- 
islatures down even to the mayors and councils, police and fire 
departments. This putting the shackles on the production of a 
public utility, nay, an international necessity, has deprived com- 
panies and agents of all hope of ever securing licenses at compet- 
itive prices. Down with the trusts!!! 
Syn. Authorize. 

Li ^ cense, n. 1. The approving smile of an insurance depart- 
ment. It always takes a certain stipulated fee, however, to pro- 
voke this style of mirth. It can hardly be described as a forced 
smile, though, since the State seal of approval is always pre- 
sented to attest its genuineness. 2. Insurance companies and 
agents buy licenses with a docility and uncomplaining persistence 
that makes the anthracite coal trust green with envy. This in- 
surance department trust is sure of its victims, while the coal 
trust deals with a senseless public, that is ready to adjust itself, 
on the slightest provocation, to soft coal, coke, hot water or air, 
or any old kind of heat that may be offered. Again, the patrons 
of insurance departments are seldom finicky about the kind or 
color of paper used in licenses or the size and shape of same. An 
insurance department will get up a license that did not cost more 
than $6.89 per thousand, including stock, and sell them to insur- 
ance agents for two, three and even ten or more dollars apiece, 
and still the demand increases. There is doubtless no class of 
goods that shows a more disreputable margin of profit than 
licenses. Still agents and companies will buy them. 

Syn. Certificate of Authority. 

Li-'en, le' en (often through poetic license pronounced as a 
monosyllable), n. [A corruption of the word lean, meaning a 

-106- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

thin portion.] 1. An encumbrance. 2. Law. — A legal claim or 
hold on property as security for the payment of a debt or charge. 
3. A charge placed against an insurance policy on which an ade- 
quate premium has not been collected and which is made 
payable from the proceeds of the policy at its maturity. 4. The 
adoption of liens as a correction of past errors in system became 
quite common in the opening decade of the twentieth century, 
which was also the closing decade of the assessment era. The 
fallacy of the "pocket reserve" system of life insurance was fairly 
demonstrated, but not until many participants in its vagaries had 
slipped across into the unextraditable hence, failing to indicate 
in which pocket of which pants they had left their share of re- 
serve. Because of this oversight on their part, it behooved those 
who, through lack of forethought, had remained too long, to make 
good the deficit. This they did by agreeing to pay the full rates 
as determined by inexorable (they had always spelled it "inexe- 
crable") mortality for their attained ages at the time of their en- 
lightenment and in charging against the face of their policies the 
amount of the pocket reserve that had accumulated upon their 
persons (theoretically) at the time of said awakening, to be paid 
when the policy became a claim. As might be expected, such 
radical disillusioning created some stir and considerable gossip. 

" You can not have your pie and eat it — 

No, not yet. 
The lien but represents the portion 

That has been et " 

—From Insurance Moralizings. Canto X. 

Life In sur '' ance, lighf in shur' ans, n. [Prom life and irv- 
surance, two eminently respected words of modern usefulness 
and unnecessary ancestry.] 1. That branch or system of insur- 
ance which deals with human lives. 2. The issuance of insurance 
contracts which are entirely subject to the tenuity of life's mor- 
tal span. [This may sound rather strained and doubtful to lit- 
erary experts, but it is nevertheless a fact] 3. Life insurance is 
the gospel of unselfish provision for others, of domestic solicitude, 
of the lightening of sorrows. Few missions are pushed with more 
vigor and signs of life. The life insurance missionary falls upon 
the unconverted with an enthusiasm that would hasten the mil- 
lennium considerably if adopted by those who are introducing 

-107 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Christianity into heathen lands. There is also a most pronounced 
loyalty to denominationalism among life insurance missionaries, 
and they are generally free to admit that the doctrines and creeds 
of others than the one they represent are misguided conceptions 
of depraved and morbidly degenerate mentalities. They do not 
foolishly attempt to deny the evident fact that "there are others," 
but they insist that there is "none so good." With all this loyalty 
it is still not uncommon for the representative of one denomina- 
tion to be converted to the service of another, and he brings to 
the new camp, besides his furniture and household effects, his 
complete stock of enthusiasm and implicit faith in his new choice 
as the true and acceptable form of insurance salvation for the 
public's requirements. 4. Life insurance is an estate in trust. It 
is the financial substitute for a departed spirit, and, to fulfill the 
ideal conception, should be sufficient in amount to produce an in- 
come equivalent to the earning power of the life represented. 

See Insurance, Policy, and the agent of some reliable com- 
pany. 

Light ' nJng, n. [A. S. Uhting.l 1. An instrumentality of sud- 
den death and destructiveness invented and patented by Hon. B. 
Franklin. This was a stroke of enterprise on his part to stimu- 
late the sale of lightning-rods, a new style of house trimmings he 
had just discovered, and to advertise the usefulness of his in- 
surance company. It was a great achievement and continues to 
attract attention at the present time. No thoughtful man ob- 
serves a streak of lightning squirt playfully from a thundercloud 
but that he thinks of his past life and Ben Franklin. If Ben had 
lived until the present day he would have found this a great 
help to him if he had wanted to continue in the printing business 
or if he had wanted to dabble in politics. But he did not live. 
2. Lightning and the summer girl, that other hazard to man's 
peace of mind, are contemporaneous visitations. Whether this 
was premeditated on the part of the inventor or not is unknown. 
8. Whatever else can be said of lightning, pro or con, it must be 
admitted that it lacks deliberation in its movements. The man 
v/ho puts off getting his house insured until he sees a brand new 
bolt of lightning driving his way will find it rather a difiicult 
proposition to reach the nearest insurance agent, secure a policy 
and return in time to modify the calamity. 4. Lightning never 

— 108 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



strikes twice in the same place unless the house is not insured. 
5, Lightning also cuts some figure in life and casualty underwrit- 
ing, for when a policyholder goes to monkeying with one of those 
spring-latch, time-lock bolts of lightning, he generally demon- 
strates the sad frailty of human existence and becomes a claim. 



Light'ning Clause, n. A clause in a fire insurance pol- 
icy permitting the property to be struck by lightning without spe- 
cial notice prior thereto to the company. 



Light 'n3ng= Spec' iai, lite'ning-spesh'al, n. [A, S, liht- 
ing; L. species.] 1, A species of life insurance agent who goes 
about touching the high spots, having no particular field. 2. The 
comets of the life underwiiting firmament. They come v/ithout 
warning and disappear ditto. Are easily distinguished from the 
fixed luminaries by a pursued appearance, an exceedingly lus- 
trous shirt-front diamond, prosperous and well-fed ensemble and 
a sulphurous trail of abuse and blue blazes which follows in their 
wake. The aforesaid and last-mentioned trail is explained by 
scientists who have been able to approach near enough, with the 
aid of a telescope and an assumed appearance of financial pros- 
perity, to make a careful examination, to be due to friction caused 
by contact with the atmospheric and nebulous surroundings of 
the fixed stars. The mission of these erratic disturbers is said 
to be the boosting of bonuses and such. Volume of business is 
their prime object and actual premium receipts are a secondary 
and, apparently, insignificant consideration. The high spot 
touched can have the goods at his own figure — provided he takes 
the goods. Result: Lightning-special cleans up much business 
that the local agent had coaxed almost to the sticking point, 
cheapens insurance in the eyes of business men, loads them often 
with more than they can comfortably carry, teaches them to wait 
for bargains, and the result is a sulphurous atmosphere and blue 
blazes furnished by the locals. 3. Lightning-specials, according 
to astronomical bulletins, are less common than formerly. 4. The 
revered adage "lightning never strikes twice in the same place," 
has been disproved so far as relates to lightning-specials. 

See Bonus. 

-109- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Lim i ta'tion, limb i ta' shun, n. [Another one of those 
words of Roman ancestry. The exact breed is not material.] 1. 
The maximum or minimum time in which claim may be made on 
a policy covering a loss or suit may be brought to air the scandal 
in the courts and attract the attention of the newspapers. 2. 
Some alleged insurance companies have been known jokingly to 
make the time during which suit might be brought expire before 
the time arrived after which claim could be made on the policy. 
This always proves real laughable for the perpetrators, but the 
policyholder never can be made to appreciate its keen humor. 
3. There may be other shades of meanings also, but the above 
ought to do for ordinary occasions. 



Line, n. [L. lineo.l 1. The insurance involved in a single 
risk or a group of associated risks. 2. Ordinarily applied to the 
more pretentious class of risks. Every agency has its pet "lines," 
or aspires to have, which it controls. Large agencies may control 
many large lines. (Apparently an eminently safe statement to 
make. ) The controlling of a line is said to be a very pleasapt and 
profitable experience, though it may have its annoying features, 
the chief of which is the inability of even the best-equipped 
agencies to cover the whole of the largest propositions without 
outside help and a sharing of commissions. 3. Sometimes applied 
to a single policy of small amount as "placing of a line on a desic- 
cating laboratory." 

Compare Old-Line. 

See Risk. 

"Whatever else you do, do not get your lines decussated." 

—From It Has Nothing to Do with the Case. Act III, Scene 2. 



Lit ' er a ture, lifer a chur, or tiur, n. [L. literature, from 
litera, letter.] 1. Printed matter furnished by life insurance com- 
panies to their agents for use in landing prospects. 2. Some of 
it is put together in swell shape, regardless of consequences, while 
some looks as if it was the product of an ax and a cider press; 
but all of it serves its purpose by calling attention in a modest 
way to the indisputable superiority of its perpetrator above all 
others. 3. The multilaterality of life insurance systems and 

— no— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

methods makes it possible for each company to prove conclu- 
sively by comparison that it has all the others beaten to a stand- 
still, 4. Literature may be placed in two classes — fact and fic- 
tion. The former deals with actual results, guarantees and testi- 
monials; the latter with estimates, suppositions and possibili- 
ties. A life insurance agent may be identified by vari-colored 
literature protruding from his numerous pockets. One of the 
chief arguments presented by the crabbed and envious as to why 
women would never succeed as life insurance agents was their 
deficiency in the pocket line; but from the records of some of the 
fair ones now in the field one must conclude that they have over- 
come this defect in some way or instituted a dress reform. 
See Supplies, Prospect. 



Lloyds, loidz, n. [From the late Welshman, Mr. Lloyd.] 
1. An institution or association composed of individuals, sup- 
posedly capitalists, who agree to furnish a good and standard 
brand of indemnity in case of loss resulting from the happening 
of a certain specified contingency. 2. The idea takes its name 
from that of a Welsh saloonkeeper in London, but, as he is dead 
now, it would hardly be fair to say much about it. He was not 
personally responsible, anyway. History states that it was in- 
vented by one of the old sports who frequented the place, and 
had become tired of billiards, fifteen-ball pool and the nickel-in- 
the-slot machine, and so evolved the game of "underwriting at 
Lloyds," as it was called. The most that can be said in its favor 
is that it is the foundation of all legitimate and substantial insur- 
ance enterprises of the present day. To the questionable stability 
of the foundation may be attributed the painful restlessness which 
pervades and envelopes the business of underwriting, and ever 
and anon causes some discouraged institution with a hectic flush 
and an abnormal development of liability to step off into the in- 
evitable. As some poet has not unwisely said, "A king may sit 
on a pin, but not silently nor with comfort, as it were." 3. Now- 
adays when a man manages to work his pull with the police and 
opens up a quiet little Lloyds game upstairs somewhere, it is spo- 
ken of as "launching" the Lloyds. This naturally follows from 
its purpose, which is the "landing" of suckers. It has been quite 
a fad in Chicago this season to launch Lloyds, and many found 

-111- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



that they could thus engage in aquatic sports who had not previ- 
ously been able to negotiate the launching of a yacht, a row boat 
or even washtub, or a loan of two bits. 
See Insurance. 

"Put not your trust in Lloyds"— Socrates. 

Load,! lode, v. t. To burden the premium with the various 
proportionate parts which compose it — expense, mortality, re- 
serve, etc. 

Load ^ ing, n. [Gothic MatUan.'] 1. A term common to life 
insurance meaning that which is alloted for a certain purpose in 
a premium rate. 2. An apportionment of future receipts. 3. The 
premium rate is like a packhorse. When it is being prepared for 
its journey out into the cold and cruel world its loading is super- 
vised with extreme care so that its general appearance may not 
attract adverse criticism. Its pack contains a certain number of 
cans labelled "expense," a carefully ascertained number of bun- 
dles marked "mortality," etc., and then a fev/ packages which are 
added to fill in the chinks and to provide for unexpected contin- 
gencies, part of which may come back at the end of the trip and 
be distributed as so-called "dividends." 3. The importance of ex- 
treme care in this loading process is appreciated when it is re- 
membered that the lynx eyes of the whole world of competitors 
are to be upon the poor little animal as he picks his way along 
the narrow and uncertain path. If it is discovered that the load- 
ing for expense is a little excessive on the off-side some wild 
Indian out West immediately gives vent to a war-whoop and gets 
busy with his tomahawk and knocks the company with great elo- 
quence and persistency. 4. Loading a premium rate and loading 
a gun are not similar operations except that both should be done 
with due care and an apparent intelligence, for both are danger- 
ous weapons in the hands of a greenhorn — especially to the green- 
horn. 

Loan, n. [A. S. Ian, loan.] 1. Money advanced on a policy 
of life insurance which becomes a lien against it. 2. Many mod- 
ern forms of life insurance contracts, among other filligre, have 
loan values which increase year by year, but are always somewhat 

— 112- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



less than the actual cash value of the policy. This helps the bor- 
rower to remember not to lapse. 3. Some underwriters criticise 
this feature as defeating the original conception of life insurance 
as a protection or provision for a family deprived of its support 
by the death of its producer. Loan values, as do also cash sur- 
render values, invite the aforesaid provider to draw on the fu- 
turity for his own wants or fancies, thus impairing or dissipating 
that which was to have brought consolation. 4. A policy with a 
convenient loan value attachment often comes handy. The holder 
is thus able to drop a roll on a straight tip from a friend as to a 
race winner, or to furnish a little wool for Wall street on a dead- 
sure thing, or to get on an 80 per cent, grade toboggan slide to 
the bankruptcy court by attempting a business venture of which 
he has no working knowledge, but a J. P. M. theoretical idea, 
when, without the ready cash, he would have had to stand by and 
see some other fellow coin the experience. 

" It is easier to open a loan account against a policy than it is to close it." 

—From Tlie Natural Laws of Underwriting. I^esson X. 

Lo'cal A'gent, lo'kal a'gent, n. [L. ago, agens, to act] 
1. A soliciting representative of an insurance company who con- 
fines his operations to within eating and sleeping distance of his 
happy home. 2. Occurs both masculine and feminine, predomi- 
nantly the former. 3. A local agent needs, above all things, a 
large circle of rich friends and plenty of sole leather. To the 
outsider the life of a local agent may appear to be a cinch, but 
that is an erroneous conclusion. It is easy enough to write one's 
signature illegibly on the lower right-hand corner of a policy, 
but collecting stale premiums which he has advanced from his 
own pocket is no Sunday-school picnic. Nor is it a pleasant or 
profitable pastime to attempt to explain satisfactorily to a cus- 
tomer why a rate has gone sky-scraping. Also the holding of expi- 
rations is often like unto the driving of somnambulistic chickens 
into a henhouse at mid-day. Note. — By actual measurement it 
is discovered that an exhaustive detailed definition of local agent 
would fill two expiration registers and an aching void, so the 
foregoing superficial outline must suflBce. Lexicographer. 

" The local agent who desires to build up a large business must exercise 
those efforts which are mainly individual and original with him.."— Eight to the 
Point. 

I. D.— 8. 

—113 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Loss, n. [A. S. los.'i 1. The happening of the contingency, 
providing for which an insurance policy was issued. 2. A de- 
struction of values. 3. With some branches of underwriting a 
policy may be continued indefinitely and not be called upon to 
cover a loss, as in fire insurance, accident insurance and casualty 
insurance generally, but in life insurance every policy is certain, 
sooner or later, to become a claim if it is kept in force. Still, 
people will persist in insuring their lives when they know this 
to be the case. 4. The payment of a loss by an insurance com- 
pany does not restore the destroyed values; it simply distributes 
the burden of the individual among the many. 

See Damage, Partial Loss, Total Loss. 

" Kvery Zoss that's promptly paid 
Is another rivet binding 
Insurance interests to business interests." 

— From. Binders and Other Attachments. Page 89, 

Loss Ra ^ ti o, los ra' sho, n. 1. The ratio of loss to premi- 
ums. 2. The barometer of a home office. 

Lov^Jng Cup , luv' ing kup, n. 1. The common material ex- 
pression of regard resorted to by a circle of associated insurance 
men when one of their number, the beneficiary of the token, has 
done something or is going to do something. 2. A three-handled 
coffee (?) cup, generally made of silver or gold. It customarily 
wears a neatly engraved epitaph across its bosom signifying the 
occasion of its advent. Some of the more popular insurance men 
who have achieved prominence without losing their friends have 
so many loving cups that they have enough to go around when 
company comes. It is really an inspiring sight to see a long table 
with a solid silver loving cup by every plate. The only trouble is 
that they are seldom mates. As a loving cup is usually sprung on 
the recipient in the nature of a surprise, he does not have a 
chance to select one to match the one he already has. 

" No, you should not say he has won his spurs as an underwriter ; you should 
say that he has woa his loving cup.'^ 

—From Insurance Etiquette. Rule 70. 

Low^er, v. t. [Ice. lagr.'\ 1. To reduce, as a rate. 2. Pre- 
mium rates in fire insurance on certain classes are sometimes 

— 114 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

discovered to be so exalted that the companies collecting them 
are able to make an apparent profit. This at once attracts uni- 
versal attention — that of competing companies, the secular press, 
the public, the fire department and various other interests, indi- 
vidually and collectively — and there is an immediate clamor, so 
insistent and embarrassing, that the bashful little rate is "low- 
ered" to a point just beneath the profit line, where it is forgotten 
by all except the company that is collecting it at a loss. 3. It is 
much easier to lower rates than it is to raise them. This is under- 
stood to be due to the gravity of public opinion, the influence of 
which is exerted on each cubic inch of the rate directly as the 
square of the altitude of the rate above the profit line as a base, 
increased by twice the cubic root of the percentage of illiteracy 
among the voting population of the State. It may be simplified 
to the following formula: G=:A2X2#'I 



M 



Man ^a ger, man' a jer, n. [Prom Daeg. maengaer, meaning 
"main gear" or "main squeeze."] 1. One who or that which man- 
ages. 2. The head of an insurance company's branch office or ter- 
ritorial department. 3. Distinguished from "general agent" in 
that his compensation is commonly in the nature of a fixed sal- 
ary, sometimes with contingency commission trimmings of an 
inspiring nature. 4. The head of the think department of an 
insurance company. 5. The way to become a manager is to begin 
at the bottom and work up. Few managers have been born such. 
It is a slow sifting process, and the educational preparation can 
be secured only in the school of experience. That mystic, unde- 
finable atmosphere of awesome superiority which impresses the 
local agent upon his first encounter with a real live manager in 
his own private office is but the natural exhalation of genius 
common to all great men. We can not help it, somehow, and 
should not be held accountable for it. 6. There are very few fe- 
male managers of insurance companies, but there are said to be 
many mis-managers. 

See General Agent. 

"In a joint stock company, all depends upon the manager." H. Fawcett, 
Polit. Econ., bk. I, ch. 6, P. 67. [Macm. 74] . 

— 115 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

Map, n. [P. mappe.l 1. A representation or diagram of a 
fire risk or risks. Not valued so mucli for its artistic excel- 
lence as for utility. 2. Insurance maps of towns and cities are 
furnished by survey bureaus, and are remarkable for their accu- 
racy, size and cost. By means of these maps a company is able 
to tell just what kind of risks its agents are furnishing. Not 
only is the coast line of the risk shown, with its bays, inlets, out- 
lets and ells, but also the thickness of walls, the number of sto- 
ries, and, by means of color effects, the material of which it is 
constructed. No agent, therefore, can send in a risk as a "nice 
brick natatorium," when, in fact, it is a frame gasoline-using, 
clothes-cleaning parlor, and hope to retain his commission. The 
detrimental exposures to a risk are also relentlessly revealed 
by the maps. In fact, the agent often feels that the company's 
examiner, who never saw the risk, knows more about it than he 
does himself, though he has lived within sight of it ever since 
it was built. 3. Insurance maps are usually bound in large vol- 
umes, which are handled by means of a hydraulic crane, although 
in some offices graduates of college football teams are hired for 
the purpose. 

Matur^ity, n. [L. maturo, maturus, ripe.] 1. Accomplish- 
ment of time for which an insurance policy is to run (or walk). 
2. Fullness of days. 3. The maturity of a fire insurance policy is 
its expiration, and, as far as that document is concerned, the re- 
lations between policyholder and company are at an end, pro- 
vided the premium has been paid. 4. The same is true of certain 
non-participating life policies, but with the endowment or partici- 
pating variety the end is not yet. On the contrary, the date of 
maturity is an eventful day for the policyholder who has, maybe, 
lingered on several years beyond his expectancy out of sheer curi- 
osity to see if the company really meant what it stated in the 
policy about "payment of the face with accumulations," and to 
experience the novel sensation of being his own beneficiary. 5. 
Maturity is the day of the transmutation of hope into realization 
or disappointment. 

Compare Expiration. 

"To win a futurity 
Bright at maturity 
Get present security." 

—From Anon. (Selected and Disinfected). 

— 116 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Max^i mum Line, n. [Idiom. Ins.] 1. The largest amount 
an insurance company assures on any one risk. An important 
question with the agent, who is pleased in proportion with its 
magnitude. It is necessary for a company to place a limitation 
on its agents, who, in their excessive generosity, might load it 
up with enough in one policy to retire it from active business if 
a fire should occur before it could cancel off according to natural 
processes. 2. Maximum lines in fire insurance have been pruned 
considerably during recent years, while in life insurance they 
have been allowed to wax great and multiply. Some cheerfully 
predict that the companies will be waxed later. 

See Line. 

Max ' i mum Rate, n. The highest rate, of course. 

Med^ical Ex am ^ i ner, med' i kal ex am' in er, n. 1. One 

who makes examinations of applicants for life insurance. 2. 
An inspector of risks with an eye out for flav/s. 3. The one who 
knocks down what an agent has set up. The examination is real 
amusing — to the physician. He gets the fee while the applicant 
often gets turned down. To be sure that the applicant is not 
feigning robust health, the M. D. investigates the lining of his 
stomach with a bicycle lamp to see if it needs repapering, takes 
out his kidneys and maybe replaces them reversed, pulls out his 
tongue to see if the roots need pruning, uses a telephone on his 
lungs to learn if there is any sand in the bellows, scares him to 
death by asking if ever before symptoms of consumption or in- 
sanity have appeared in his family, charging him as he loves his 
life and has hopes for the hereafter not to answer falsely or with- 
hold anything which may bear upon his case. When the applicant 
gets through, if he passes, he feels that such a remarkable speci- 
men of human perfection as himself has no need for insurance 
of any kind; while, if he is turned down, he is so alarmed that he 
loses his grip and dies next fall. 
See Rejected Risk, Application. 

Min ' i mum Rate, n. The lowest rate, of course. 

Mis rep re sen ta ' tion, n. 1. Presenting that as being 
which is not, or that which is not as being. 2. An effective tool 

-117^ 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



of twisters, whicli, adroitly manipulated by an expert, will often 
induce a policyholder to drop a good contract in a good company 
for a phantasm in an imitation concern. It is estimated that 
misrepresentation has done more real harm to the institution 
of life insurance than the casualties of all the wars or all the 
epidemics or calamities that ever resulted in abnormal death 
ratios during the nineteenth century. 3. Misrepresentation is a 
product of overcompetition. 4, Misrepresentation has also been 
observed in the modern processes of fire underwriting. 

''Misrepresentation is the chief tool in the kit of the cowardly agent." From 
Insurance Truisms. Page 88. 

Mon op^o ly, n. Something every one wants and is willing 
no one else shall have. 

See Insurance Trust. (If you hope to find that there is an in- 
surance trust and that it has a monopoly, you are going to be 
disappointed.) 

Mor ' al - Haz ' ard, n. [Fr. moral and Jiasard.'] 1. That fire 
hazard in a risk which is chargeable to the cupidity or careless- 
ness of the owner, 2. A subtle, uncertain, but highly important, 
factor in rate-making which can not be formulated in a sched- 
ule. 3. If a risk is suspected of having a case of moral-hazard it 
is the duty of the local agent, the special agent, the inspector, the 
manager or any-old-body having the company's welfare at heart, 
whether from selfish financial motives or otherwise, to investigate 
the matter thoroughly. There are various methods of diagnos- 
ing a case of moral-hazard. Some searchers for truth approach 
the suspected proprietor and ask him in a modulated tone of voice 
if he ever has been arrested for arson; whether the profits from 
his business are large enough to make it no object for him to 
burn-upski; whether he has incurred the enmity of the neighbor- 
hood by harboring cats, dogs or chickens, or by practicing on a 
cornet at midnight, etc. However, this familiar and off-hand 
method is not recommended to the average-sized investigator. 
It is much more sanitary to make researches quietly among the 
subject's neighbors and in the police records. 4. No self-respect- 
ing citizen should feel fiattered to discover that his rate has been 
somewhat encouraged by a moral-hazard. He should have it am- 
putated at once. 5. A moral-hazard in a plant is worse than a 

— 118- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



barrel of gasoline or a sleeping night-watchman. 6. Moral-hazard 
is frequently almost epidemic in States having valued-policy laws. 
See Arson, etc. 

Mor tal ' i ty, n. Another name for death. 

Mor tal ' i ty - Ta ' bles, n. (Generally plural, as they occur 
in flocks.) [L. mortalitus and tabula.'] 1. Although not exactly 
a piece of furniture, as the name might imply, still very useful — 
more than useful — absolutely necessary, in a life insurance home 
office. 2. The tabulated results of many years' experience in hu- 
man death rates. They show how many persons out of a thou- 
sand of such-and-such an age will die per year. (Cheerful read- 
ing.) 3. In order that those who honor the compiler of this so- 
called (among other things) dictionary with consultations, may 
be able to recognize a volume of mortality-tables when they see 
one and thus avoid reading two or three chapters before they 
discover that it is not a historical novel, the following definite 
description is given: Mortality-tables are generally found, some- 
times, in a large medium-sized book of several hundred pages, 
more or less, with a sheepskin, cloth or some other kind of bind- 
ing, as the case might be. A casual turning of the leaves will re- 
veal most symmetrical and appalling columns of figures which 
might be mistaken for scores in an international pinochle con- 
test or a bowling tournament, but they are not. 4. Men who are 
familiar with mortality-tables and seem to like them are called 
actuaries. 

Syn., Tables of Mortality, Experience Tables of Mortality. 

See Actuaries' Experience Tables of Mortality, American Ex- 
perience Tables of Mortality et al. 

Mul ^ ti pie A ^ gen cies, mul' ti pi a gen cies (also pronounced 
a menace to local fire insurance agents), n. 1. A habit of absent- 
mindedness sometimes afflicting companies, causing them to ap- 
point one or more agents in towns where they are already repre- 
sented. 2. Too much of a good thing. 3. Not long ago some of 
the companies became so afflicted with the malady that the posi- 
tion of distinction enjoyed by insurance agents in a community 
became threatened and it looked as if every door-post was to be 

— 119 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



shingled with signs of fire insurance companies. With true zeal 
for the preservation of the dignity of the profession and an eye 
to the inevitable result of this general distribution of his daily 
loaf, the real agent rose to the occasion with sufficient emphasis 
to enliven the memories of the companies; so where their signs 
once appeared in blocks of five or more they are now found but 
one at a time. 



N 



Na ' tion al Su per vi ' sion, na' shun al su per vizh' un, n. 
[Idiom. U. S.] 1. The regulation or supervision of insurance in- 
stitutions by a national bureau or office, rather than by each 
State separately. 2. An imaginative state of bliss for the realiza- 
tion of which many have been hoping. 3. Several attempts have 
been made to establish the right of insurance to this blessing, but 
the courts have not as yet been able to recognize insurance as 
amenable to the requirements necessary to its realization. 
The best they have been able to do as yet is to call it names, 
among others "the handmaid of commerce," which was a polite 
hint that until woman's suffrage becomes the style in this country 
insurance companies need not expect to be allowed to go to pri- 
maries or smoke campaign cigars. 4. The chief barrier to national 
supervision is said to be the Constitution of the United States, 
which is defective on this subject. It is not strange, though, that 
this part of the fabric should have been neglected, since at the 
time of its formation insurance was hardly a factor in the affairs 
of men, and gave no indication of its future intentions. Some 
claim that before national supervision is possible the Constitu- 
tion must be changed or amended. This may sound simple, but 
any one who once tries it will appreciate the task. Others claim 
that it will do as it is, but such an opinion must become epidemic 
before it will have the desired effect. 5. Experts claim that the 
advantages of national supervision would be many — uniformity 
of requirements, reduced expense in the way of taxes, fees and 
sweetening, elimination of inimical State legislation, etc. Of a 
truth, there would be nothing left for the insurance papers to de- 
nounce but rebating and twisting. Possibly these would go, too. 

See State Supervision and "Views." 

— 120— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Nat ' u ral Gas, n. [L. naturalis, and gas, a term invented 
by the Belgian chemist. Van Helmont. (1577-1644.) Patent right 
has expired.] 1. A non-union brand of gas produced in Nature's 
laboratories. 2. It is secured, or rather released, by drilling judi- 
ciously into the calm bosom of Mother Earth, until Trenton rock, 
under proper conditions, is reached. If the gas is there it will 
not be necessary to go down to find out, for it will announce its 
presence with a roar, and possibly bring up the casing and a Chi- 
nese suburb with it. 3. Natural gas is colorless; some is odorless, 
some is not. Of a truth, when natural gas attempts anything it 
does not do it by halves, and so, if it decides to have an odor, it 
has one that smells like a reminiscence of the annual egg crop 
of the United States for the past five years. 4. Because of its com- 
bustibility and cheapness it is used where found for heating, 
lighting and manufacturing purposes. It is distributed by means 
of pipes and franchises. It sometimes distributes its trusting 
patrons across the landscape by means of explosions. 5. The 
chief danger attendant upon its use is its inclination to leak. 
The quickest and surest way to find a leak is with a lighted 
candle. When the searcher is successful, he usually jumps play- 
fully about sixty feet through the foundation wall of the house, 
taking a necklace of stringers and studding with him. This plan, 
however, is discouraged, as it generally musses up a neighbor- 
hood somewhat and gives the fire department unnecessary work. 
6. Fire insurance companies recognize the use of natural gas as an 
increase in the hazard, and require that permission for its use 
be stated on the policy. 7. The chief hazards attending its use 
are fluctuating pressure and its tendency to disintegrate the 
brick work in flues. 

Syn. Rock Gas. 

Nat 'a ral Pre^mium, n. [Colloq. life underwriting.] 1. 
The step rate premium. 2. The premium on a life insurance pol- 
icy which is taken one year at a time, regardless of the past or 
future, but optimistically and blindly cognizant only of the im- 
mediate present. 3. The natural premium at a given age is ma- 
terially less than the level premium for the same age, but the 
natural premium advances year by year with the increasing mor- 
tality, until it passes the level premium, and continues to grow 
until the policyholder dies of worry and amazement. The level 

— 121 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



premium policyholder always dies of old age and out of regard for 
his expectant beneficiaries. 4, The natural premium is that which 
is collectable on yearly renewable term business. 5. Like many 
other of Nature's efforts, the natural premium has been improved 
upon by man in the peace-preserving, nerve-quieting, automatic, 
level premium systems of life insurance, and, though the natural 
product may allure as a temporary excuse, it has no hope of pub- 
lic popularity as a substitute for the horizontal variety. 

Syn. Step Rate Premium. 

Compare Stipulated Premium, Level Premium. 

See Renewable Term. 

Net, adj. [L. nitidus, shining.] 1. Free from all extraneous 
incumbrances; the essence; the real, undiluted thing. 2. Unem- 
bellished; clear; without deductions or additions; pure; unadul- 
terated. 3. A term of frequent occurrence in underwriting nom- 
enclature; e. g.: net premium, net loss, net profit, net expense, 
net reserve, net value, etc., also et al. 4. The analysis of the con- 
glomerated results of underwriting into individual items gives 
net deductions. As "net underwriting profit" in fire insurance, 
an imaginary portion which remains of a premium after deduct- 
ing losses and expenses; "net premium" in life insurance, the bare, 
unincumbered premium after it has been stripped of the loading 
for expenses and other burdens, and so on ad infinitum. 5. Oppo- 
site of gross. [Which see.] 

" It is net results we want, 
Oh, Philemon, 
And not gross imaginings." 

—From The Best Is None Too Good. Act X, Sc. 8. 



Night = Watch ' man, nit-wach'man, n. pi. night-watchmen. 
[A. S., niht and wacian.l 1. (Zool.) A chiropterous mammal, 
belonging to the genus Vesperhomo, in size resembling a man. It 
remains in concealment during the day, hiding in darkened cham- 
bers, where it engages itself in sleep. With the setting of the sun 
and the blowing of the 6 o'clock whistles it flits forth, generally 
seeking some large building, where it is supposed to put in a 
night of activity. It resembles, also, insects of the genus Lam- 
pyris, which emit light, in that it usually carries with it a lantern, 

— 122 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



2. A night-watchman, to be a marked success, should be af- 
flicted with insomnia. 3. Its nocturnal movements are not mere 
aimless ramblings, but are actuated by its great fascination for a 
fire and it is continually on the lookout for one. If it succeeds in 
its search its behavior is decidedly pronounced thereupon. 4. It 
has been remarked as a strange fatality that when a plant inhab- 
ited by a night-watchman burns because of his surrender to a 
sleepy spell, it is always the first time that he ever chanced to 
doze while on duty. 5. Insurance companies encourage the propa- 
gation of night-watchmen by offering bounties to plants where 
they may be discovered. 

Non=Con cur ' rent, adj. 1. Not concurrent. 

Non=Cur ' rent, adj. See Non-Concurrent. 

Non = For ^ feit a ble, non for' fit a bl, adj. 1. Not forfeita- 
ble. 2. A life insurance policy of peculiarly adhesive type. Some 
policies are easily forfeitable for lack of compliance with some 
provisions or conditions. With some it takes eternal vigilance 
to avoid forfeiture. The non-forfeitable kind are not so. Once 
accepted, no act or idiosyncracy of the holder will relieve him of 
their benefits. He is at liberty to live as long as he may and to 
die when and how he pleases. If he discontinues premium pay- 
ments the policy automatically adjusts itself to furnish him with 
paid-up insurance to the extent of his policy accumulations. 

Non-Haz ' ard ous, adj. 1. Not attended by unusual danger 
or risk. 2. Non-hazardous, as contemplated in insurance phrase- 
ology, does not necessarily imply an absence of liability to injury 
or death. It is generally conceded that the most quiet and otiose 
existence is constantly menaced by sudden extermination from 
violent, external accidental means, or unsuspected, internal mi- 
crobial ravages. Damoclean swords are not among the lost arts. 

Non-Res ' i dent A ' gent, non-rez i dent a' gent, n. [Colloq. 
U. S. Common to profane literature (and conversation).] 1. One 

— 123 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



who writes insurance in a State of which he is not a bona fide 
resident. He commonly operates without a license and is a pro- 
lific cause of overhead writing. 2. Zool. A cold-blooded, primate 
mammal (homo sapiens borealis) having the brain and brain case 
relatively large as compared with the face, which is nevertheless 
exceptionally pronounced, and carrying the body erect in locomo- 
tion except when making itself scarce. As in other species of the 
genus homo, the great toe is not opposable, thus enabling it to 
side-step with alacrity and to dodge sheriffs, posses and legisla- 
tive enactments with an agility quite phenomenal. It is preda- 
tory and migratory, the former by instinct and the latter of neces- 
sity. Although it makes numerous raids on territory belonging 
exclusively to resident agents and is eagerly sought in some 
States by insurance commissioners as a choice, ever-seasonable 
dish to be served to hungry constituents, it still seldom meets its 
just deserts, but? lives to a tough old second childhood. 3. A non- 
resident agent can be readily distinguished by his marked in- 
tangibility or flea-like attributes. If it were possible to make a 
close examination it would also be discovered that he had no 
domiciliary poll-tax receipts about his person. '- 

See Resident Agent and the statutes. 

Non-Spe cif ' ic, adj. See Specific. That is what it is not. 



Oc'cupancy, ok'upansi, n. [L. occupafAo.'] 1. The nature 
of business transacted in a building. 2. Inside information. 3. 
All occupancies do not look alike to fire underwriters. A glance 
through the occupancy pages of the recently adopted Mercantile 
Schedule, or any other, will prove it. There are over four hun- 
dred and fifty classes definitely named and provided for in the 
Mercantile Schedule, and a general admission towards the end 
that, most likely, there are others. The rates for the various 
classes range up and down with a free abandon at once compli- 
mentary to certain classes and embarrassing to others. However 
haphazard these figures may appear, each one represents years of 
experience and mountains of ashes. They are, therefore, entitled 
to deepest respect. 

— 124 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

Oc ' cu pied, ok' kew pide, pp. 1. Tenanted. 2. Lived in. 3. 
Whether or not a risk is occupied is of deep interest to the com- 
pany which proposes to insure it or is already on. The more 
vacant a house or building is, the more liable it is to burn, as va- 
cancy is accompanied by the tramp and non-productive-property 
hazards. [See Vacancy.] 

Oc^to pus, ok' toe pus, n. See Monopoly. 

Off, oph, adv. 1. Antithetically opposed to "on." 2. Not 
covering. 3. Safe. 4. A fire insurance company is said to be off 
of a risk when it has not issued a policy thereon. 

"When in doubt cancel off.'" 

— From Insurance Proverbs. X, 3. 



Old=Line, n. [A facetious evolution of old-lying (lyin', 
lyne, line).] 1. A term originally applied in ridicule by assess- 
ment advocates to companies doing business on a level premium, 
or legal-reserve, basis. The name became permanently attached 
to this class of companies and, at first, it was objected to like 
freckles or warts, but lemon juice, buttermilk, rubbing it on a 
smooth stone, squirming, etc., only established it the more firmly 
and it had to be adopted. By many years of such respectable so- 
ciety it has lost its odium and is now spoken in a tone of respect, 
void of all remembrance that it was ever anything but a compli- 
ment. Which goes to prove that the next best thing to getting 
rid of a disagreeable association is to make the most of it and 
cover its imperfections with a spirit of cheerful resignation, as an 
oyster transforms an irritant into a pearl. 2. The term was orig- 
inally designed for the exclusive use of life insurance companies, 
but since its admittance to respectability it is often borrowed by 
reserve-maintaining fire insurance companies. 

Syn., Legal Reserve, Level Premium. 



Om^ni bus Risk, n. [L. omni'bus, dat. pi. of omnis, all; and 
L. reseco, re back and seco, to cut.] 1. A risk involving several oc- 
cupancies or industries. 2. A building in which a variety of en- 
terprises is conducted. 3. Such risks are common in congested 

— 125 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



districts, where space is valuable. The variety of combinations 
which may be encountered is limited only by the multiplicity of 
human activities or the diversity of industrial productivities, 
either of which might be termed as the extreme limits or infinity. 
It is not uncommon to find under one roof a shirt factory, rug 
establishment, coffee-roasting herbariam, glue plant, candy mill, 
Oriental perfumery laboratory, country sausage manufactory, old 
clothes renovating sanitarium, patent medicine emporium, Castile 
soap generator and a half dozen Italian, Hungarian, Sclavonian, 
Inharmonian naturalization conservatories. This is also known 
as an aromatic risk. When the inspector investigates such a risk 
he wears a clothespin on his nose and a pair of goggles. 4. In 
making the rate each of the occupancies is disinfected and taken 
into account. 

On, adv. 1. Antithetically opposed to "off." 2. Covering. 3. 
Insuring. 4. A company is said to be on a risk when it has a pol- 
icy covering it. 

"Off again, on- again, burned again."— Adapted. 

0''pening, n. [A. S. open, second cousin to "up."] I. 1. 
Arch. — A door, window or other aperture in a wall, used either 
for egress, ingress or the admission of light or other commodities. 
Openings are a factor in fire underwriting because they afford 
ready entrance or exit to a building for fire unless equipped with 
shutters or doors or over-insurance. Fire shutters or doors, if up 
to standard qualifications, enjoy a credit in the construction of 
the premium rate, while over-insurance is not thus encouraged, 
however effective it may have proven itself as a check to the prog- 
ress of flames — in the estimation of the over-insured. 2. The num- 
ber of openings in a structure is arbitrary, some have more, some 
have less; of the former a greenhouse is a type; of the latter, a 
smokestack. 

II. 1. A business opportunity. 2. Chance for a location. 3. 
Modern intensity in business life makes openings scarce and upon 
the appearance of the least suspicion of an aperture there is an 
immediate avalanche of willing applicants, and woe and disap- 
pointment betide the unfortunate ones who are slow. Desirable 
openings never attain proportions of sufficient magnitude to ac- 

— 126- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



commodate a load of hay, so if the procrastinator is to succeed in 
getting his feet on the ground he must take what's left. It is 
authentically reported among Roman traditions that an opening 
in the market place of that metropolis remained for several days 
unfilled, although it was thoroughly advertised in the "want" col- 
umns of the daily papers. Finally when Marcus Curtius applied 
for the place it created great excitement. Affairs have so changed 
that nowadays a business man who has an opening in his store 
hardly dares to make the fact public for fear so many will be at 
the door in the morning that he can not get in to open the mail. 
See Fire Wall. 

O^pen Pol'i cy, n. A policy in which the amount of in- 
demnity is not named at the time of writing, but is inserted later. 
This may sound good, but it will be useless for some thrifty in- 
dividual to attempt to get such a policy with the idea that, after 
a convenient fire, he can name any preconceived amount of suflQ- 
cient magnitude to permit him to live in comfort and idleness 
the rest of his life. 

Op ' tion, op' shun, n. [L. opto, choose.] 1. The right of 
choice. 2. Privilege of selection. 3. Life insurance companies 
have sought to increase their popularity by issuing policies which, 
after a certain number of years, mature, and in settlement the 
policyholder is entitled to several options or choices as to how or 
in what shape he will accept his accumulated gratification. Quite 
commonly he is at liberty to take all cash, or all paid-up insur- 
ance, or all as an annuity, or all as an interest-bearing bond, or 
part cash and part paid-up, or part cash and part annuity, or part 
cash and part bond, or part cash, part paid-up, part annuity and 
part bond, or any one of the other dozen or so combinations he 
may fancy. 4. In assessment insurance the policyholder generally 
sooner or later, sometimes both, also has an option to exercise, 
but it is usually a very painful operation as compared to option 
exercising upon an old-line policy, and it must be undergone 
without the grateful assistance of anaesthetics (the "gas" is usu- 
ally administered earlier in the game). The options referred to 
are increased assessments or liens on the policy, or scaling down, 
or lapsing, or dying immediately. The last named, though least 

— 127 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



desirable, in most cases is tlie only one tliat does not present 
financial loss. 

Read your policy. 

"If your option were the devil or the deep blue sea, 
What would your choice be?" 

— From Plagarisms and Other Plagues. Introduction. 

Or^di na ry, adj. [Adapted.] 1. Life insurance for amounts 
of one thousand dollars or over, with premiums payable quarterly, 
semi-annually or annually. As a term it was adopted to distin- 
guish the common style or make of insurance from industrial in- 
surance when that had its beginning. The industrial policyhold- 
ers, however, have multiplied so rapidly (by arithmetical, geomet- 
rical and common-sense progression) that, as far as numbers are 
concerned, "ordinary," referring to the thousand-dollar class, will 
soon be, if it is not already, a misnomer. 2. When a policy runs 
over $100,000 it is called extraordinary. 3. Some new agents, who 
have been attracted to the business because they inferred from 
the term "ordinary" that it was a case of easy money, and that 
all they would have to do would be to collect and spend it, have 
quickly been relieved of worry as to the spending part df the 
formula. They learn that "ordinary" has no reference whatever 
to the striking successes which crown their efforts and rev/ard 
their perspiration, nor do they find an ordinary hat rack insuffi- 
cient to accommodate their collection of laurel wreaths nor the 
ordinary endowment of pockets in the ordinary hand-me-down 
style of raiment inadequate to retain, without crowding, an ordi- 
nary day's applications. 

See Industrial Insurance, Intermediate Insurance. 

" You may call it ordinary but I have another name for it." 
—From The First Day Out or How to Work for the Fun of It. Page 77. 

Oth ^ er In sur ' ance, n. 1. Concurrent insurance. 2. In- 
surance on the same property. A common condition in fire under- 
writing where the modesty of the insurance companies prevents 
them from being too grabby. A permit is generally granted in 
the policy for other insurance, showing a generous willingness 
on the part of the writer to share premiums — and losses. 

O ^ ver head Writ ^ ing, o'ver hed rit' ing, n. [Colloq. U. S.] 
1. The writing of insurance policies by the company over the head 

— 128 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



of the local agent, causing him to lose his commission and his 
temper. 2. A practice recently very common among insurance 
companies, but rapidly becoming unpopular. It has been discon- 
tinued for much the same reasons that a man who attempts to 
sample the contents of a hornets' nest is quickly satisfied. Large 
lines disappeared in this way and it made the local agent sore 
when he chanced to see policies of his companies in these offices 
without his "John Henry" down in the right-hand corner; so he 
flocked together in large numbers and threatened dire and other 
blood-curdling things if it was not stopped. The companies 
promised to be good on a large piece of paper and now the agent 
has so many policies to write that he does not have time to go to 
church on Sundays nor to the train to meet his mother-in-law. 
[^sop.] 

See Minutes of the National Association of Local Fire Insur- 
ance Agents. 

O ^ ver In sur-'ance, n. [Idiom, valued policy States.] 1. 
Fire insurance for more than the value of property insured. 2. 
Too much of a good thing. 3. Except in States afflicted with val- 
ued policy laws, over-insurance does not tend to disturb the solar 
symphony since the policies are drawn only to "indemnify for ac- 
tual loss" and so if a generous minded citizen is willing to pay 
premiums on twice as much as he owns that is his own individual 
and indisputable privilege, only he must not expect the insurance 
companies to be equally foolish in settling his losses. In valued 
policy States, however, it is another matter and any one who has 
not been able to succeed in business except to wear corns and bun- 
ions and other callous decorations on his conscience may sell out 
his stock in a reduced state (ashes) for twice its value, or any 
multiple thereof for which he can stick the companies. Natural':* 
insurance companies are suspicious in such States and make 
closer inspections and charge higher rates, but it is many against 
a few and they often recoup a man for his losses of before the fire 
as well as those actually due to the flames — and then some, for 
good measure. 

See Valued Policy and read statistics. 

0''ver Val u a^'tion, A valuation of the property over its real 
value. This makes but little difference to fire insurance compa- 

I. D.— fl. 

— 129 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



nies except in valued-policy States. If the property owner en- 
joys the sensation of paying premiums, the companies prove in- 
dulgent. He may be disappointed, however, when he finds that 
the companies' delight in paying losses does not induce them to 
pay more than the actual value destroyed. 



Paid-up In sur ' ance, n. [Economy.] 1. Life insurance on 
which premium payments are no longer required. 2. A policy 
which has had its premium appetite satisfied. In the case of every 
life insurance policy it is figured to a mathematical nicety just 
how much premium health food it must have to mature it. It 
can be fed with one grand blow out, a single premium, or it can 
be, as it commonly is, furnished with an annual ration on which 
in the course of time, whether short or long depends on the condi- 
tions appearing on the face of a policy, will mature it as "paid- 
up." For comfort it beats a Morris chair or an old shoe. Any one 
who is the proprietor of a corpulent paid-up life insurance policy 
in a reliable company can not help showing it on his face any 
more than he could a wart or any other embellishment. 

Par ^ a pet, adj. [Dagonish, para'petto, breastwork.] 1. Ris- 
ing above the roof. It applies to walls, and not to chimneys. 
Any one who attempted to apply it to the latter in polite society 
would quickly discover that it does not fit. 2. A parapet wall is 
an architectural ornament as far as insurance companies are con- 
cerned because of its usefulness in preventing flames in one build- 
ing from communicating to adjoining property. A few bricks in- 
vested in a good parapet wall — and they do not need to be gold 
bricks, either — will pay larger dividends or interest in the shape 
of premium savings than almost any other ordinary investment. 
This fact, however, should not lead any grasping capitalist to buy 
an acre of ground and cover it with parapet walls in the expecta- 
tion of reaping a nice income from the insurance companies. It 
is not the parapet walls in themselves that appeal to these philan- 
thropic but thrifty institutions, but the service they render in 
their relationship to adjoining risks. It thus appears that the 
number of parapet walls possible to an acre is limited, as is its 
productivity in other lines. 

— 180 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

Par ' tial Loss, par' shal los, n. [L. partialis; A. S. los.'\ 1. 
Not a total loss, actual or constructive. 2. "Not as bad as it might 
have been." 3. By far the greatest number of losses that a com- 
pany pays are partial and it is the numerous little fires taken to- 
gether that make the big holes in a company's assets. Enough 
partial losses will make a company look like thirty cents on the 
dollar as the final dividend. 4. The term partial loss was monopo- 
lized by fire insurance for many years, but early in the twentieth 
century it was broadened to cover accident and health insurance 
as compared with life insurance, and several companies are writ- 
ing policies combining total and partial loss as touching human 
life. So if a man provided with one of these conveniences hap- 
pens to get broken (physically) or partly killed he represents a 
partial loss to the company, which consoles him proportionately. 
This certainly gives the final solar plexus blow to those cavilling 
critics of life underwriting who have been continually carping 
about life insurance patrons being compelled to resort to the in- 
convenience of dying in order to realize on their policies. 

See Loss, Total Loss. 

Par tic^i pa ting, par. [L. pars, part, and capio, take.] 1. 
Sharing in dividend or other accumulations. 2. Partaking. 3. A 
life insurance policy is said to be "participating" when it is treat- 
ed as one of the family and can put its feet under the table regu- 
larly at meal times. Some policies, however, are like unpopular 
step-children, and are only semi-participating, or, maybe, not 
that much. They get in on but a few of the good things or are 
allowed an occasional hand-out. They are doubtless better off, 
however, than the non-participating class. 4. All assessment 
policies are participating, so to speak. They all experience the 
gradual aspiring tendency of the rates and the depressing char- 
acteristics observable in that variety of so-called insurance. They 
participate in the general disappointment that marks the closing 
scene and the final report of the receiver, provided, of course, 
their certificates did not become claims in the natural course of 
events before the receiver appeared on the program. 5. A partic- 
ipating policy in a full reserve company simply gets back in cash 
or credit its regular overpayment in premiums, with excess in- 
terest increments. 

Compare Tontine. 

— 131- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Part ' ner ship In sur ' ance, n. [Coined in the latter part 
of the nineteenth century.] 1. Life insurance covering the lives 
of the members of a firm or partnership, which, on the death 
of any one, is payable to the firm. This scheme is growing in 
popularity, as its benefits are obvious to any shrewd business 
man, and it is with such that it has to deal. By such a provision 
the embarrassment almost certain to follow the death of a mem- 
ber in a partnership, and especially if he is the recognized head, 
is relieved, and, instead of a compulsory dissolution, as is com- 
mon under an unprotected condition, the business may be con- 
tinued without interruption or loss. 2. It is a natural instinct 
with trade, where a firm loses one of its strong members by death, 
to make special exactions upon the bereaved house for the protec- 
tion of all outstanding claims, but when the vacant chair is offset 
by a large sum of ready cash, the generous instincts of said 
trade cause it to deal leniently. Business generosity has a fixed 
market price. Leniency can be purchased by the week, day or 
meal, but the price must be in evidence. 3. Partnership insurance 
is a glittering dream to most agents, who can imagine how it 
must feel to get names on the dotted line to the tune of 'a hun- 
dred thousand to a million, but with little hope of enjoying the 
actual experience. Those who deal in that class of goods, how- 
ever, generally find that, by the time they have met all the com- 
petition that has obstructed a case, the actual cash commission 
which finds its way into their private and individual jeans will 
not justify a retirement from further financial pursuits. 



Parity Wall, n. [Chinese — imagine the rest] 1. A wall 
built on a property line and used in common by two buildings. 
2. Fire insurance companies naturally do not favor this style of 
partnership particularly, though it is a common form of construc- 
tion. They prefer that each building provide its own wall. Un- 
der such conditions either can burn down much more satisfac- 
torily to the insurance companies interested in the other than if 
the wall was a party affair. It does not help a piece of masonry 
particularly to have one of its surfaces glazed like an old brown 
jug. Still, one good party wall is often preferable to two poor 
individual walls. As a chain is only as strong as its weakest 
link, so the fire resistance offered by a party wall should be meas- 

— 132 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



ured by its thinnest portions — too often a thin shell of masonry 
where indentations are cut to receive floor stringers. 3. The best 
way to ascertain whether a wall is party or not is to ask the own- 
ers of the property concerned and then go up on the roof and see 
for yourself. Do not necessarily rely upon the majority report, 
but be governed by what you see. 

Compare Fire Wall, Standard Wall, Parapet Wall and Chi- 
nese Wall. 

" A party wall ten feet thick, without openings, is more to be desired than 
two individual walls of ten inches each.". 

—From Insurance Proverbs XV, III. 



Per ^ mit, n. [L. per through ; Ger. mit, with. Literally, 
through with.] 1. A concession. 2. Permission. 3. A privilege 
granted by an insurance company. 4. The policy may be full of 
conditions and prohibitions, but where special request is made, 
the company may be willing to show that there is nothing mean 
about it by waiving certain designated conditions. Of course, no 
company is going to go into the permit business on a wholesale 
basis and grant a blank permit avoiding the whole category of 
conditions; but, if approached with proper respect, it will grant 
the holder of one of its policies permission to have his house 
struck by lightning, to electrocute himself with a properly in- 
stalled electric lighting plant if he so desires, to blow himself into 
a scrambled q^^ shade with gasoline or natural gas, if he is par- 
tial to that style of exit from mortal woes, or to place other in- 
surance on the property in some rival company; or, if it is a life 
insurance policy with a rather restricted horizon, the holder 
may be able to persuade the company to permit him to cross a 
fixed, imaginary, geographical dead line and play tag for a pre- 
scribed time with death in the form of cholera, malaria, yellow 
fever and other picturesque bacilli, or he may gain the privilege 
of posing as an animated target for the bullets of his country's 
enemies, or, if a bachelor or widower, by properly bribing the 
agent, he may get permission to get married, providing he has the 
chance. 5. Permits are commonly in the form of riders, and are 
worn conspicuously on the bosom of the policy. 

"A permit to be valid, must be endorsed by an authorized officer or agent." 
From Gratuities or Love's Labor. Page 10. 

— 133- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

Per pet ^ u al In sur ^ ance, n. [Haven't time to investigate 
pedigree.] 1. Insurance which continues in force for all time or 
during the life of the property insured in consideration of a single 
premium of sufficient proportions. 2. The agent who has perpet- 
ual policies on his books is at least not worried about renewals, 
but if all his clients wanted this brand of indemnity he would 
soon work himself out of a job, though doubtless his commissions 
would be so great that he could endure the Philadelphia quiet that 
would pervade his office very gracefully. It is too awful to con- 
template what would become of him, however, if he spent his en- 
tire income as fast as it came in. He would certainly be compelled 
to turn his attention to a side line — possibly real estate — to eke 
out an existence. 3. Perpetual insurance is not uncommon in life 
underwriting, though not under that title. Many single premium 
[see same] policies are sold which permit the holder to die as 
soon or as late as he pleases, upon which event the claim is paid, 
and as far as he may have been concerned or cared the insurance 
was perpetual. 

Per sist ^ ent Pol ' i cy hoi der, n. [Scien.] 1. One who 
sticks. 2. A policyholder who stays with a company "for better 
or for worse, until death us do part." 3. Persistency is an essen- 
tial with the agent, it is a possible attribute with the policyholder. 
4. A "prospect" may be coaxed and hypnotized until it becomes an 
"applicant." The "applicant" may be pulled through the gauntlet 
of the medical department and pronounced a full-fledged policy- 
holder, but, whether "persistent" or not, it takes time to tell. It 
sometimes takes as much tongue work to secure a second year's 
renewal as it did to give away the first year's commission. 5. Per- 
sistent policyholders seldom are the fruit of "gift" insurance. 
The taste for bargains of this kind is an acquired taste, but like 
most tastes of that category it strikes deep. 6. Occasionally a 
policyholder is persistent because he realizes that he has a good 
investment and he pays his premiums like clockwork. 7. There is 
another class, however, that is as persistent as a somnambulistic 
mince pie or a setting hen. It is composed of policyholders who, 
after getting into the company, discover that they are using im- 
paired lives. The flaws may have been present upon the occasion 
of the medical examination and escaped notice or may have been 
acquired subsequent thereto, but there is nothing on earth to in- 

— 134— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

spire persistency in a policyholder like a wheezy lung, a warped 
liver or an unraveled stomach. (These terms were not taken from 
a medical dictionary, but will have to answer.) This tendency re- 
sults often in a bad selection which boosts the mortality rate 
much higher than is seemly or becoming. 

Phys'Jcal Haz'ard, fiz' e kal haz' ard, n. [Derived from 
seven Greek microbes and the Dago word, azzardo.] 1. That haz- 
ard of a risk due to its construction and the nature of its con- 
tents. 2. The anatomical hazard of a structure. 3. In fire insur- 
ance, as in life insurance, every risk must submit to an examina- 
tion before it is accepted by the company. The inspector who is 
onto his job is a thorough individual. The area of floors, thick- 
ness of walls, number of entrances, number of exits, stairways, 
elevator openings, deaf and dumb waiters, skylights, wiring, 
number of stories (including facetious anecdotes by proprietor,, 
submitted for coercion purposes), brand of cigars used by said 
proprietor, and many other details are carefully considered and 
weighed by the inspector. When he gets a complete diagnosis 
of the case he puts all the symptoms down on a piece of paper, 
known to science as the "inspection slip." He then looks fixedly 
at the slip for a few moments, mutters a number of cabalistic 
words of a derogatory nature to the owner of the property and 
the premium rate silently appears in the lower right-hand corner. 
This is filed away to be applied when needed. 

4. In life insurance: That hazard which attends the daily 
conduct of business. It varies directly as the square of the weight 
of the prospect multiplied by the distance. 5. That which adds 
zest to life, kicks a hole in the head of a hum-drum existence, so 
to speak, and dissipates ennui. 

See Inspector. 

Compare Moral Hazard, Special Hazard. 

Pink Slip, n. 1. An affliction to which municipalities are 

subject. It results from careless neglect of the general fire haz- 
ard. Where, for example, a city's water system has been allowed 
to run down until it becomes sluggish and incapable of affording 
an adequate supply of this necessary style of wetness for fire ex- 
tinguishing purposes, an attack of "pink slip" is liable to break 

— 135 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



out at any moment. It makes its appearance on fire insurance pol- 
icies, and every policy thus afflicted calls for an advance in pre- 
mium in proportion to the virility of the attack. Rotten politics, 
decrepit electric wiring, general uncleanliness as to boxes, barrels 
and rubbish in backyards and basements, a "has been" fire de- 
partment, are also among the direct causes of the malady. The 
only remedy is to correct the cause, and it yields readily to proper 
treatment. Cities which have successfully convalesced from a 
serious attack of "pink slip" are not apt to affect deafness there- 
after, at least for a time, in the presence of suggestions as to 
ways and means for curbing the exhuberance of the loss ratio. 

" When the pink slip was read, 
It left a trail of blazes blue." 

—From The Blue or the Oray. Page — . 

Place, plase, v. t. [Fr. placer. 1 1. To write insurance for, 
as to "place a risk." 2. To take care of a line. 3. Used either in 
the sense of placing the risk or placing the insurance. 4. Where 
the amount involved is small and the risk is not undesirable, the 
placing of the risk is a simple matter for the agent. All he has 
to do is to fill out one or two policies in his own office and the 
deed is done; but if the line is so large that it exhausts the writ- 
ing facilities of his own office, and a part of it is still exposed to 
the elements, he must hike (technical) around among his brother 
agents (and sister agents, in some localities) and distribute the 
excess as he sees fit, thereby depriving himself of a portion of the 
commission. But with very large lines he finds that even after 
lie has exhausted the writing capacity of "the street," yet a 
greater or less portion of the line is still sticking out from under 
the cover. He then must sneak into the privacy of his closet and 
get into communication with unauthorized brokers, surplus 
liners, wildcats, the Knights of the Golden Circle, the under- 
ground railroad, the Ku-Klux and sundry other mysterious 
sources of relief, all of which, he is aware, may result in embar- 
rassing interviews with the State insurance department. 
Syn. Write. 

"It is easier to place a one per cent, rated risk than it is a seven per cent." 

From The Higher the Fewer. Vol. X., ch. VII, p. 999. 

Pock^'et Re serve', pok' et-re zerv', n. [Five-fourths pock- 
et and minus one-fourth reserve.] 1. An imaginary fund supposed 

— 136 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



to be secreted about the persons of members of an assessment or- 
ganization. An extremely doubtful asset. Note. — Doubtful assets 
are accorded the same consideration in polite society as doubtful 
eggs. 2. The main objection to a pocket-reserve lies in its reluc- 
tance to be converted into current coin of the realm. The holder 
generally was not duly impressed in the initiative, so to speak, 
with its significance and the probability of a future call for it. 
Instead of securing a nice Harveyized steel pocket in some safety 
deposit vault in which to keep the reserve free from moths and 
rust and such things, he usually kept it or its remains in the right- 
hand pocket of his jeans, where it would be convenient. If he 
had put it in his left-hand pocket and sewed up the mouth thereof 
all might have been well. But he kept it in the way of tempta- 
tion and gradually invested it in food, raiment and other non- 
interest-bearing securities, failing to obtain any tangible collat- 
erals to show for it. Result: When his high-mightiness, the su- 
preme mucky-muck of the association, upon urgent necessity, 
invited him to deliver the whole or a part of the fund he was 
holding in trust, he generally put on an injured air and feigned 
ignorance of the whole matter. The universal repetition of this 
program has caused receivers to wax fat and has seriously disfig- 
ured the beauty of the pocket-reserve argument. 

"Shrouds may have no pockets but it is a recognized fact that the deceased, 
members of assessment associations generally forget to turn over their pocket 
reserves before they depart."— From "Assessmentism and other Jackessment- 
isms," page 13. 

Pol 'icy, n. [It. polizza, a, note.} 1. A contract of indemnity, 
usually printed on a piece of paper about so long and proportion- 
ately wide. 2. In fire insurance most of the substantial companies 
use a similar form in many States known as the New York Stand- 
ard. The wild-cats and other irresponsibles have more originality 
and draw up contracts that are fearfully and wonderfully made. 
In some cases the insured may congratulate himself if he is not 
arrested for maintaining a nuisance. The rare humorist of the 
late lamented century, in composing that pathetic bit of sentiment 
"Honesty is the best policy," could not more emphatically have 
disclaimed all connection with any wild-cat insurance company if 
he had expressed himself in volumes. 3. Life insurance policies 
can hardly be said to be endowed with uniformity. In fact, no two 

— 137 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



forms are found alike in every particular; it might almost be said 
that no one is ever alike. The policies of the reputable companies 
which are in the business to pay losses are straightforward, in- 
telligible contracts; but there are many so-called companies and 
associations which issue policies of another brand. The works of 
no author, outside of Browning perhaps, have ever received so 
much study to discover their hidden meaning as have these poli- 
cies. Browning is discussed at Boston pink teas, policy authors are 
cussed in all the courts from Maine to California. 4. Few policies 
have ever been read through by the holder. A holder of an as- 
sessment policy, fire, life or otherwise, should read the contract 
carefully. The finer the print and the more obscure a par>agraph 
may be, the more important is it that it should be carefully read, 
both forward and backward. 5. Holders of insurance policies need 
not be alarmed at the periodical newspaper accounts of the "sup- 
pression of policy in this city." That is another kind of game. 
See Wager-Policy, etc. 

Pol ^ i cy hold er, n. [From a silde of Greek animalcula, 
meaning "of many leaves," and A. S, liealdan, hold.] 1. One who 
or that which holds an insurance policy. 2. The public (ihdivid- 
ually). 3. The completed product of an agent's handiwork. In 
fire insurance the program of an insurance deal represents prac- 
tically but two steps (figurative — extremely so) : First, the 
"prospect" or the "expiration," whose name has been worn next 
to the agent's suspender buckle for eleven months in happy an- 
ticipation; second, the "policyholder." In life insurance the 
transaction consists of three steps (this is also figurative, under- 
stand, for we know of individual cases that have cost 2,873,981% 
physical steps, and at time when shoe leather was quoted 18 
points above par and reason) : First, the "prospect;" second, the 
"applicant," and, third, the "policyholder." 4. Fire insurance 
policyholders are commonly annual, triennial or pentennial, hav- 
ing to be renewed according to the original process periodically. 
Life insurance policyholders, if well planted in the beginning in 
soil free from rebate parasites and well adapted to the variety of 
fruit to be produced, do not need further attention for years, be- 
yond a little annual pruning. 5. Policyholders are said to be a 
desirable attribute to an insurance company; it might be af- 
firmed that they are essential; in fact, in many cases they are 

— 138 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



"the company." 6. Any property-owning citizen may become a 
fire insurance policyholder; any healthy, able-bodied individual 
of proper pedigree may become a life insurance policyholder. In 
fact, they will find it easier to become than to refrain, if they 
are half way accessible to agents. 
See Applicant, Prospect. 

Post Mor ' teiii As sess ' ment, n. 1. An effort to collect 
premiums for the payment of losses already incurred. 2. Old-line 
companies prefer to anticipate the need, and are thus prepared 
for prompt settlement. Some assessment associations, not know- 
ing what to do with the money, prefer to let the members keep it 
until it is needed. The trouble with this system is that many 
members, after indulging the keeping habit, find that it becomes 
chronic with them, and they keep on keeping, despite the urgent 
appeals of the High Mucky Most Mucky Muck. 3. Post-mortem 
assessmentism is losing favor rapidly, as it does not afford the 
certainty and prompt settlement which life insurance, to be sat- 
isfactory, must give. 

See Assessmentism, Pocket Reserve, etc. 

" Fo&t mortem assessm.entism is the life underwriting parallel to locking the 
barn after the horse is stolen." 

—From Veneer and Varnish. Page 16, 

Pre ^ fer red Bus '' i ness, n. [Origin disputed, meaning 
ditto, privilege of writing also.] 1. A class of risks which uni- 
formly shows a profit. 2. The redeeming feature of underwriting. 
3. However pleasant to contemplate preferred classes may be, they 
are an indication of existing inequalities in rates by which said 
classes are contributing more than their equitable proportion of 
the fire tax. An ideal condition would know no preferred class, 
but all would contribute the same ratio of underwriting profit. 
(This is purely ideal and as probable of attainment as such con- 
ditions usually are. If it were to be attained it would be as last- 
ing as a soap bubble.) 4. [Colloq.] The business that pays the 
highest rate of premiums and consequently produces the fattest 
commission revenue. This meaning of the term is from the 
agent's standpoint and is accepted only in certain geographical 
locations where sawmills and other special hazards are more 
abundant than the preferred classes, as viewed from the com- 

— 139 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



pany's side of the counter. It miglit be noted in this connection 
that often the business which the agent prefers the company- 
prefers to decline. 5. That business which will not burn. (This 
is exclusively from the stockholder's point of view.) 
See Dwelling. 

Pre lim^i na ry Term, n. 1. The practice common among 
some life insurance companies of considering the first year of a 
policy contract a one-year term, thus escaping the necessity of 
putting up for reserve, this lack being distributed through the re- 
maining years of the life of the contract until it is finally made 
good. 2. Especially favored among the younger companies, who 
have not large surpluses to draw upon to care for first-year busi-. 
ness, which, owing to the large commission, medical examination 
fee and other incidentals, is too burdensome for complete dispo- 
sition by a single premium. These primary expenses not being 
encountered after the first year, the premium is able to take care 
of its current obligations and clean up old scores as well. Confi- 
dentially, now, this preliminary term business came near being 
barred from this highly esteemed and most select production, for 
the reason that it seemed altogether too serious and profound a 
matter to present in these pages. Now that it is finally disposed 
of, however, the lexicographer feels much relieved. Whether it 
is defined in a graspable manner, or even correctly, is another 
matter of entirely minor importance and immaterial. The less 
said about it the better. 

Syn. First Year Term. 

" Insurance authorities differ as to the -ixpediexicy of the preliminary term 
sj'stem"— J. A. Jackson. 

Pre^inium,n. [L,. praemium, lit. 'profit derived from booty," 
which goes to prove that it does not always pay to be too curious 
about our ancestry. To think that a word of modern respecta- 
bility sprang from such a source! It sprang advisedly and com- 
mendably.] 1. The price paid for insurance. 2. The considera- 
tion for which an insurance company agrees to indemnify or pay 
a stipulated amount in the event of a certain contingency. 3. The 
lubricant of the underwriting machine. The usual plan contem- 
plates the payment of a certain amount yearly, though occasion- 
ally the whole thing is settled at once in the form of a "single 

— 140- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



premium," 4. There are two brands of premiums, cash and notes. 
The former is the higher grade, and always assures smooth run- 
ning, but the latter, if applied to any great extent, is certain to 
result in friction, especially at the points of contact between the 
running gear and the insurance departments. 5. The premium 
is the fruit of the policy. 
See Rate. 

"That he might secure the business 

The premium he advanced; 
And then upon his client, 
Each day attendance danced." 

—From When Collections Are Bum. V. 6, 

Pre^ml um Note, n. [From premium and note. If you want 
to know more about it, look it up.] 1. A note or an "I O U" 
given in lieu of a premium on an insurance policy, 2. A pocket 
premium. 3. A certain class of companies, generally mutuals, 
makes a specialty of this complexion of (in) -securities. The pro- 
moters and solicitors call attention to the enormous profits which 
the stock companies are harvesting, due to the extreme altitude 
of the prevailing style of rates, and further back up their belief 
in the fairy tale by agreeing to furnish so-called insurance in re- 
turn for autograph paper. Of course, a little cash must be put 
up for postage and running expenses. Then these autograph col- 
lections are exhibited as assets and a reservoir for the furnishing 
of indemnity. But if occasion arises for heavy drawing upon the 
reservoir, the difference between a cash premium and a premium 
note becomes painfully apparent. By some strange hallucination 
the person who signs a premium note and then is called upon to 
pay it feels that he is being compelled to pay twice for his in- 
surance. At least his behavior would justify that conclusion, and 
many premium notes prove to be false notes, and otherwise jar 
the harmony. It is about this stage of the game that the cash put 
up for "running expenses" comes in handy. 

See "Failed or Retired" and premium. 

'^Premium notes do rery well when the loss ratio is unaspirins but when it 
gets ambitioui bank notes are better."— Jnsttrance Proverbs, XX, 3. 

Pres ' 1 dent, prez' ident, n. [L. praesidens, ppr. of prae- 
sideo.'\ 1. The nominal head of an insurance corporation. 2. 
Poetically, the main squeeze. 3. The office is elective, and gener- 

-141 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



ally it does not have to seek tlie man as long and fruitlessly as 
did Diogenes in his renowned search. Though the term of office 
seldom holds out longer than a year, still, when a man is once 
elected to the presidency he is generally re-elected from year to 
year. This custom prevails, since a change in presidents would 
necessitate the reprinting of all of a company's policies, station- 
ery and other literature upon which a president's name appears, 
and such a prodigal waste, if indulged in to any extent, would in- 
vite annoying criticism on the part of the nearest insurance de- 
partment. There may also he other reasons why there are few 
changes in the office of president. There may he others as good 
and sufficient as the one presented. It is not the province of this 
work to deny and argue, but to state naked and unembellished 
facts. 4. Presidents of insurance companies are very rare in some 
localities, where the climate is not properly equipped with finan- 
cial ozone, and there are many agents who have never seen one, 
just as there are people who have never seen a railroad, a steam- 
boat, an automobile or a crowned head. 5. All that the 
president of an insurance company has to do besides draw his sal- 
ary is to steer the thingumajig safely around among the rpcks of 
competition, bad selection, cut rates, arson, ambitious mortality 
rates, litigation, taxation, legislation, criticism, fatalism, prece- 
dents and panics. In fact, it is almost as onerous a task as writ- 
ing a dictionary or a $10,000 endowment at full rates. 



Pro du^cer, n. [L. pro, before, and duco, to lead,] 1. One 
who or that which produces. 2. A term commonly applied to a 
life insurance agent who writes a satisfactory volume of business. 
3. The joy of a general agent's heart, the light of his eye. 4. 
Zool. — One of the hustlabimus gettheribus species of the genus 
homo, commonly belonging to the xanthochroic or melanochroic 
groups, though dark-skinned specimens have occasionally been 
discovered. Its distinguishing class marks, if it has any, are a 
quick eye, confident bearing, ready tongue, active feet, a buoyant 
temperament, an optimistic cast of mind and a glad hand. All 
these attributes may not be discernible to the naked eye in the 
raw specimen, but may be in a dormant or in a quiescent state 
ready for development under the scientific touch of a general 
agent or superintendent of agencies. The discovery and devel- 

— 142 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

opment of the producer is often a discouraging process, and or- 
dinarily involves the sifting of much useless material and fruit- 
less prospecting for talent. The "dry hole" feature of oil drill- 
ing is as naught compared to the depths of intellectual obscurity 
into which the hopeful general agent must probe. But the most 
disheartening experience common to the culture of producers is 
their extreme ephemerality. Many a producer which has just de- 
veloped to a capacity of $10,000 per week paid-for business sud- 
denly becomes enamored of the color work on a renewal contract 
with a rank competitor, and leaves his discoverer with nothing 
to show for his work but a large expense account and a soleless 
pair of uppers. This experience has become so common that 
many shrewd g. a.'s now let the other fellows do the development 
work — they buy a controlling interest when the claim shows signs 
of profit. 

See Agent. 

" A good producer is a joy forever— if you can hold him." 

—From Insurance Parodies. See Index. 



Pro hib^l ted List, n. [Local option.] 1. A list of risks or 
classifications which a company instructs its agent or agents not 
to write, or at their peril. 2. The "thou shalt nots" of an insur- 
ance company. 3. The abstinence list. 4. Articles not in the pre- 
scribed diet of an insurance company. 5. Most wise insurance 
companies, like most sensible men, have in their statutes of con- 
duct and right living strict exclusion acts, which bar the entrance 
to their digestive interiors of certain classes of risks or articles 
of diet which they consider unprofitable or fraught with dyspep- 
tic possibilities. Men generally make out their prohibited lists 
January 1 and swear off copiously and fluently. Some manage to 
struggle through the year without letting many of the proscribed 
aliens be undergrounded across their frontier borders, but others, 
even on January 2, have been known to tip the wink to the custom 
officers and the quarantine stations, and become open violators of 
their engrossed resolutions and promising subjects for Mr. 
Keeley's justly celebrated seminary. Insurance companies do not 
have to wait until January 1 to swear off or enlarge their prohib- 
ited lists, but may take the pledge any morning after the close 
of any fiscal year when the mail shows katzenyammer tenden- 

— 143 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



cies as to any particular style of architecture or nationality of 
trade. Insurance companies resemble men in that their prohibit- 
ed lists do not in any degree partake of the inflexibility attrib- 
uted to the laws of the Medes and Persians, for a little period of 
prosperity and subsequent competition will make the most ap- 
proved and lengthy prohibited list look like a candy cane on De- 
cember 26. 6. A prohibited list is among the other things which a 
wildcat company has not. 
See Maximum Line, etc. 

Pro hib ^ i tive Rate, n. 1. A rate so high that the owner 
of the property affected feels that he can better afford to carry 
the risk personally than to pay the premium, 2. (Bot.) A rate 
which, because of the stimulation of a high percentage of physical 
or moral hazard, develops such rank growth as to be unfit for 
market. 3. The anomaly common to prohibitive rates is in that 
the less able the property owner affected is to pay the price the 
less he can afford not to; for if a corpulent insurance com- 
pany is inclined to be cautious for fear of loss, how much more 
is the unfortunate individual in need of protection. 4. Prohibitive 
rates are the "devils" that push the property owner over into 
the "deep sea" of "wildcat" insurance. 



Proof of Loss, n. 1. A certified statement of the insur- 
ance, the loss and the property destroyed or damaged, furnished 
by the assured as stipulated in the policy. 2. An insurance com- 
pany does not often take things for granted, however willing it 
may be to take things for other purposes, and, though its agent 
may have sent in an account of a total loss on a "preferred" risk, 
accompanied by his resignation and left-over calendars, and 
though the special may come in from the scene of the disaster 
with a detailed report and an odor of smoke so pronounced as to 
wring tears from the eyes of the entire office force, or the presi- 
dent of the company may receive a marked newspaper account of 
the fire from a thoughtful contemporary who "stayed off" of the 
risk (because his agent couldn't get it) — yes, all these and more 
are not sufficient to satisfy the company positively that there was 
a fire, and hope that it may be a brutal mistake lives until the 
properly prepared proofs of loss arrive from the man who owned 

— M4- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



the property that burned. 3. Some proofs of loss must be ex- 
pected, but where they become as common as rain checks in April 
it is time to begin to look around for a chance to reinsure. 
See Blanks. 

Pro Ra ' ta, [Dagonish.] 1. In proportion. 2. Especially 
in fire underwriting, the community of interest of companies often 
necessitates the pro rating of receipts and disbursements, ex- 
penses or losses. Often the pro rating of the premiums may have 
looked small where the pro rating of losses looks correspondingly 
large. This is due to the fact that in most home offices the re- 
ceipts are viewed each morning through the large end of a tele- 
scope, while the outgoing checks and drafts in the evening are 
scrutinized through the other end. 

"Pro bono publico 
Pro rata indemnio. 
—From What I Don't Know about Latin. Page 7,876,545. 



Pros ' pect, n. [L. prospectus ; prospicio, to look forward.] 
1. One who has evinced a willingness to listen to a life insurance 
agent. 2. One who refrains from hurling paper-weights, ink bot- 
tles, spittoons, expletives or other detachable articles at a life in- 
surance agent who happens to drop in on business. 3. The fin- 
ished product of a life insurance agent represents three steps — 
the prospect, the applicant and the insured. The prospect is the 
birth of hope. In its early stages it is nursed as carefully as an 
incubator-baby or a boil on the back of one's neck. It is usually 
fed on a peculiar brand of literature which is judiciously prepared 
for such cases at the home office. Tons of this nourishment are 
consumed annually by prospects. All prospects do not become 
applicants; but where there is health there is hope, and if a pros- 
pect does not develop consumption or the borrowing habit an 
agent sticks to him like a brother, on the theory, "once a pros- 
pect, always a prospect." 

** Prospects are the stuff that applicants are made of, 

And applicants, my lord, 
When passed the M. D., by the shade of 

McNall, become insurants — 
And insurants pay commissions ! " 

—"The King of the Kaw,'' Act I, Scene 8. 

I.D.— 10. -145- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Protect/ V. t. [L. pro before; and tego, to cover.] 1. To 
guard against fire; to reduce the fire hazard. 2. The danger from 
fire is universally recognized (in this life and in the life to come), 
and, as man is an anticipating animal, like the ant, which is the 
historical personification of prudence, though hardly to he digni- 
.fied as an "animal," he attempts to ambush and obstruct every 
otherwise inviting vista that might present itself to an ambitious 
or inquisitive blaze with such obstacles and discouragements that 
its journey will be short. This he does by means of water sys- 
tems, fire departments, fire proofing, patent extinguishers, co-in- 
surance clauses, legislation and religious freedom. II. 1. To take 
care of, as one's business. 2. Fire insurance companies are often 
-anno3'-ed by the inability of agents in certain localities to secure 
fully matured and unimpaired rates. When a crop of premiums 
is coming in from such a district and the consignee companies 
discover that almost every premium apple in the barrel has a 
big rebate bite out of the sunny side they know by experience 
what is the matter. A long season of hot competition has touched 
the heads of the local premium pickers and in their desire to 
stand well with the public, their neighbors, they have t;aken to 
feeding them forbidden premium fruit. When the malady is dis- 
covered to be too firmly established to yield to argument or rea- 
son the interested companies resort to the homeopathic remedy of 
feeding the entire apple to the public, not leaving even a commis- 
sion core for the pickers. Empty stomachs soon clear their brains, 
and the companies have "protected" their business, but the pick- 
ers, the agents, wonder "who in Sulu is going to protect us?" 
(Echo answers "Who?") ; and they all are compelled to work side- 
lines until a new crop of premiums can grow. 
III. 1. Colloq. To insure. 

"Nay, sweet Bretanio, 
'Tis not to protect us 
But to crush us, I vow," 
—From Much to Do for Nothing. Act. I, Sc. 8. 

Pub'llc, n. See "The Public." 

Py^ro Ma^ni ac, n. 1. One who has an insane desire to burn 
property. 

See Incendiary. 

— 146 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



There is none. 



Range, n. 1. A row of buildings sufficiently contiguous to 
permit fire to communicate from one to another. 2. An iron box 
or chest in which, by the judicious association in proper rela- 
tionships of fire and raw materials, cooked food and other short 
cuts to dyspepsia and pessimism are produced. It is also used to 
maintain the average of "kitchen fires," 

Rate, V. t. (ra' ted, ra' ting.) [Prom Roman idiom, reor, 
to reckon.] 1. To determine the percentage or proportionate pre- 
mium cost of an insurance risk. 2. In fire insurance a risk used 
to be rated largely by guess and an instinctive knowledge of how 
much the piece de resistance would stand for; now it is rated by 
schedule, a simple complex intelligible complicated artless op- 
eration of more or less translucence and incomprehensibility. 
Schedules of various and other varieties may be secured from the 
schedule laboratories by those authorized to receive them, to- 
gether with directions for use. They are applied strictly accord- 
ing to aforesaid prescription, either before or after, and when the 
final figure appears in the lower right-hand corner of the second 
page of the rating slip it is compared with the former rate and 
coerced into an approximate relationship thereto. 3. In life un- 
derwriting a risk is rated according to age and sex, and, by some 
companies that insure sub-standard lives, the physical condition is 
taken into consideration. It is a simple matter to rate a life in- 
surance prospect. All that is necessary is a rate book furnished 
by the company and a mercantile report to see whether he can 
pay or not. 

See Schedule. 

Rate, n. 1. The percentage or proportion per hundred dol- 
lars to be charged as a premium for an insurance risk. 2. Some- 
thing hard to make and easy to break. 3. Rates are naturally 
ambitious and buoyant, and, were it not for the gravity of com- 

-147- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



petition, they would quickly soar upward, followed by the male- 
dictions and legislative anathemas of a down-trodden and op- 
pressed public. [Anyone who has been followed by a dark brown 
anathema through the hushed stillness of a dark night can im- 
agine how it would feel to be shadowed by a "legislative" anathe- 
ma. An octopus is not in it] 4. Fire insurance rates can be se- 
cured already for immediate application from any insurance 
agent or the local rate shop. As previously hinted, rates are of 
an effervescent nature and should be kept in a cool place. It is 
well, too, to weight them down with a large hunk of horse-sense 
and reasonable precaution. 5. Life insurance rates are always on 
tap with the nearest representative of "the best company on 
earth" and as to "nearness" you will not have to use wireless tel- 
egraphy, a heliograph or even a megaphone to get into communi- 
cation if you show yourself half-way sociable. 
See Schedule Rate, Prohibitive Rate. 

' ' ' Tis not that the rate is not placeable ; 
' Tis that the place is not ratable." 

—From Random Rates. Page . 



Rate Cut ^ ter, n. One who or that which cuts rates. 
Alias Rebater, Demoralizer. 



Rate War, n. 1. A barbarous custom sometimes sanctioned 
by insurance companies. Its origin is traceable to the "dark 
ages," when it was the style to shed blood and disfigure the 
beauty of one's next door neighbor each morning before break- 
fast. 2. Rate wars among insurance companies are generally in- 
stigated by some disgruntled company which finds satisfaction 
in cutting off its nose to spite its own face. 3. Rate wars are not 
so common as they were a few years ago, for the reason that, to 
be successful as to gore and desolation, they must have the hearty 
co-operation of the local agents located in the storm center; but 
local agents have discovered by sad experience that they alv/ays 
come out of the little end of the horn when peace is re-established 
and so refuse to take up arms. A rate war without the local agent 
is like an engagement between naval admirals — all wind and no 
bloodshed. 3. It is probable, therefore, that in the near future 
rate wars will exist only in tradition, and the broadswords, war- 

— 148 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

clubs and scare-head dodgers will be relegated to the ancestral 
armor rooms with other antiquities. 

"Brave warrior, rising from the dust, 
To thread-bare clothes and meagre cmtt. 
His good sword yielding to the rust, 
His folly he has often oussed— 
Sad victim of a rate-war's lust." 
—Extracted from The Underwriter's Nightmare, p. 7S. 



Ra^'ti o, ra 'shi ough, n. [Contraction of "rate I owe." S. 
T.] 1. A mathematical relationship existing between two num- 
bers — the factor which, multiplied by the one, will produce the 
other. Thus the "expense ratio" which a company's business 
may reveal is that figure which, if premiums are multiplied 
thereby, will produce the amount of expense. In like manner, the 
loss ratio is that figure which, upon similar treatment as to the 
premium income, will produce the loss payments. If these two 
operations Iiave not more than put a finish to the premium, the 
complementary factor of the remaining fragment is commonly 
referred to as the ratio of profit. This, however, is not the true, 
genuine, accept-no-other-without-this-signature underwriting prof- 
it, as may be learned to the inquirer's edification by reference 
to U. P. aforesaid, and hereinafter alphabetically arranged. 2. 
The man who discovered and made first use of the mathematical 
ratio might well be classed among public benefactors. Without 
a knowledge of this readily applicable test of relationship, the 
hopeless complexity of underwriting would make that profession 
very unpopular, to say the least. That the discoverer of ratios 
should have given the fruit of his mind to the world without de- 
manding a royalty for its use seems strange. If, even now, he 
will present himself, with duly authentic proof of his claims, the 
insurance companies will gladly show a very substantial appre- 
ciation of his valuable service. [This offer is made only after a 
careful examination of the vital statistics of Alexandria on the 
Nile reveals that the interested party went out of the mathsr 
matical business considerably B. C] 

"Absolutely the most astounding, amazing and dumbfounding aggregation of 
wonder-provoking radios ever congregated under one canvas-"— From bill boards 
of the P. B. A. Circus ( 3 rings, 2 rings, 1 ring, ringless j. 

-119- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Re ^ bate, re'beight, v. t. [L. re, again; Hib. "bate, to beat. 
To beat again.] 1. A common form of philantbropy among in- 
surance agents by which they present their customers with a 
part or all of their commissions. 2. This generosity on the part 
of agents has naturally led a large percentage of the public to 
look upon insurance soliciting as a great snap, since those who 
engage in it are willing to work for the fun of it. The unani- 
mous willingness on the part of the public to humor this gener- 
ous impulse is also conspicuous. 3. If it were not the fact that 
all agents engaged in the insurance business are notoriously 
wealthy and above the vulgar necessity of contemplating the cir- 
cumference of a dollar at times, this style of charity would be 
unknown. 4. Rebating further resembles eighteen karat alms- 
giving in its unobtrusiveness. See Matt. vi:l-4. [The rebat- 
ing alms-giver sticks strictly to this text.] Had Solomon lived 
after the advent of rebating or had rebating been common in his 
day, he would have added to his Proverbs: "The wise rebater 
openeth not his mouth to vaunt; but the foolish one, through 
much speaking, diggeth a pit for his destruction." Which shows 
what a wise man Solomon really was. 5. Rebating, like some 
other charities, has been greatly overdone, and strong efforts are 
being made to check it because of its bad moral effect on the pub- 
lic, to say nothing of its embarrassing influence upon the domes- 
tic economy of the agent. 

See Cut. 

"He wore out scads of leather and he paid no heed to weather ; 

His company he was able to defend. 
But it made no diflFerence whether he lost out altogether, 

For he'd rebate his commissions in the end." 

— From Misplaced Philanthropy. First Mis. 

Re ^ bat er, re' bat er, n. 1. One who rebates, gives, sur- 
renders, declines, separates himself from a portion, all or an ex- 
cess of his commission upon a premium in order to secure, obtain, 
a risk or beat the other fellow out of it. 2. He is found in all cli- 
mates, that is, if there is any one slick enough to catch him. He 
is often hard up and compelled to make his living out of some 
other business than insurance. He operates unobtrusively, not 
announcing his generosity by means of a brass band or full-page 
advertisements. He is much like a flea, in that, now you think 

-150 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



you have him and you haven't. He has been known to appear in 
large swarms in certain localities at times and has wrought great 
ruin to the insurance business. 3. The other fellow. 4. Attempts 
have been made to exterminate him by fines and ostracism. Neith- 
er of these is specific. 

See Rate-Cutter, Demoralizer, or, better still, the manager of 
the local board. 

Re build^, v. t. [L. re. A. S. tyldan (an Anglo-Saxon head 
with a Roman nose).] 1. To build again. 2. To replace. 3. As 
fire insurance companies undertake only to indemnify against loss 
due to fire they reserve the privilege of restoring or rebuilding 
the property destroyed to as good condition as it was before the 
contingency continged. This is generally agreeable to the in- 
sured, but occasionally it so derails the plans of the unfortunate 
claimant that he becomes vituperative and otherwise unpleasant 
when it is suggested that he permit the rebuilding of his place 
instead of being given the money. He may even have prudently 
arranged for the judicious disposition of the cash before the fire, 
being of an anticipatory frame of mind and having noticed cer- 
tain things about the risk which led him to suspect that he was 
about to be visited by Providence and the fire department. In 
such a case it is embarrassing to abandon a trip to Europe on a 
liner or a scoot over into an adjoining commonwealth on a brake- 
beam, disguised with a week's beard and an alias with a brogue, 
just to stay home and watch the erection of a building you don't 
want and to smell plaster and paint until your olfactory nerves 
are pickled and your sense of unrequited martyrdom is as promi- 
nent as a hollow tooth. 4. Rebuild refers only to fire insurance 
at present; how long this will be the case is doubtful, as the en- 
terprise of life insurance companies leaves no limit to the possi- 
bilities of their undertakings and accomplishments. 



Re ceiv ^ er, re sev' er, n. [F. receveur.'] 1. One who or that 
receives. 2. One who winds up an insurance concern. He usually 
winds it up so tight that it can never go again. 3. One appointed 
by court to put a crippled financial v^^reck out of its misery. 4. 
When a receiver is appointed to close up a company he first fires 
all the officers who have been drawing princely salaries and then 

— 151 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



looks in the cash drawer to see how long it will take to put on the 
finishing "touch." This he determines by dividing the amount in 
said cash drawer by the sum at which he values his time per 
week. The result is the time. The more money it has the more 
he will feel like giving it a good, first-class wind-up. His duties 
are somewhat arduous, as he has to carry on a line of correspond- 
ence that would make an undertaker's letter files look like an au- 
thor's manuscript for a comic weekly. His cue is to receive kicks, 
claims, bills, roars, demands, threats and lamentations. He an- 
swers uniformly, "Your claim has been filed and will partake with 
the rest in the apportionment of dividends and the distribution 
of disappointment. The indications are that the latter will score 
higher than the former." Methuselah is quoted as having said, 
"Every assessment company has its receiver." This is mighty 
consoling since it would be tragic indeed for a tired and exhaust- 
ed assessment company to arrive at its inevitable finish and find 
no receiver to welcome it. But Methuselah would not have made 
such a statement without justification and he was certainly old 
enough to know. 5. The receiver is the only one who deals with 
an assessment concern who is sure to obtain a full settlement. 



Rec i proc^ 3 ty, res i pros' i ti, n. [L. reciprocus, meaning 
getting back at him.] 1. Doing others as others do you. 2. Giving 
and taking. 3. An optic for an optic; a molar for a molar; a 
straight arm for a straight arm, an astragalus for an astragalus, 
a fibula for a fibula, and so on through the entire 
category of human complexity. 4. The silver rule in 
action. 5. Reciprocity to a great extent governs the 
style of reception and treatment that insurance com- 
panies coming from one State may expect in another. If a com- 
pany's home State is inclined to be lenient towards strangers it 
will generally meet with a kindly reception in other States that 
it decides to enter. Of course no band and reception committee 
meets the train to escort it to the State House, but the holdups to 
which it is subjected are carried through in such a gentlemanly 
and friendly manner that it feels like apologizing for not having 
to pay more than is asked. But when a company hails from a 
State that treats insurance companies which get into its borders 
as legitimate prey, always in season, it will find a lot of armed 

— 153 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



pirates waiting to get even wherever it goes, and if it manages to 
save some portion of its premiums to underwriting profit account 
it is simply an accident or because some tax clubber was asleep or 
had forgotten his X-ray outfit and could not discover that a part 
of the revenue had been temporarily swallowed. 6. Reciprocity 
is a comprehensive process for covering any omissions in burden- 
some legislation which may have unintentionally occurred. 
Syn. Retaliatory. 

" What they lacked in precocity 
Was made up in reciprocity.'' 

—From Lux Legis. P. CXXVII. 

Re cord^ing Agent', rekord'ing a'jent, n. An agent who 
signs policies (when he has any to sign, of course). 
Compare Surveying Agent. 

Re duce', re duse', v. t. [L. reduco, to lead back (with a 
club).] 1. To cut down. 2. To make less. 3. To curtail. (There 
are other words which also express the thought, but you doubt- 
less catch the drift.) 4. Reduce, as an insurance term, is more 
useful than popular. Reducing a line, a rate, a commission, ex- 
penses, amount at risk or an impatient creditor to an indulgent 
mood — all thfese smack of unpleasantness. Although a "line" in 
mathematics is an imaginary affair, having neither width, thick- 
ness, avordupois or a market value, yet in fire insurance "lines" 
are not so afflicted and may be readily reduced, though, of course, 
if the reducing process is persisted in, an insurance line may be 
worn down to the unserviceable dimensions common to the math- 
ematic variety. This reducing idea became epidemic with fire in- 
surance companies in the opening years of the twentieth century, 
until many agents were reduced to the necessity of seeking other 
and less restricted channels to ultimate wealth. 

Compare Cut. 

" Raise a rate— raise a hue, a cry ; 
Reduce a rate— as still as slumber, aye. 
'Tis more? 'Tis but to howl ; 
'Tisless? How much and not the why." 

—From Insurance Khayyama. XX. 

Re in state', v. t. To restore to full force and effect a pol- 
icy which, through some neglect or misbehavior of its holder, 
has been suspended or lapsed temporarily. 

Observe Revive 

— 153 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Re in state '' ment, n. The state of being reinstated. Said 
by those who have experienced it to be very enjoyable and com- 
fortable. 

Re in sur ^ ance, re in shur' ans, n. 1. The act of insuring 
again. 2. Technically known as disposing of a "hot potato." 3. 
May be a "partial" or an "entire" operation; when the latter it 
is also known as "the finish." Reinsurance of the "entire busi- 
ness" is becoming as popular with certain classes of fire insurance 
companies as golf is with — with — the rest of us. 4. Although one 
visitation is usually fatal to the company affected, some survive 
the shock several times; notably, the Manhattan, Indiana special- 
charter companies, et al. 

See Receivership, Bankruptcy, Failure. 

Re in sur ^ ance Re serve'', n. A sum set aside by an in- 
surance company as a liability to cover the unearned premium 
account. The keystone of an "old-line" company and the guar- 
anty of protection to its policyholders. It is determined from 
time to time by carefully calculating the amount necessary to 
carry the outstanding business, with subsequent premiums, to 
expiration. Assessment companies, pure and simple, avoid this 
annoyance temporarily by eliminating the reinsurance reserve 
entirely. However, if the reserve fails to accumulate, the an- 
noyance does not, and when it becomes too great for accommoda- 
tion in the home office a dividend is declared, and every one of 
the members is given a large chunk, etc. IRequiescat in pace.} 

See Reserve. 

Re ject', V. t. [L. rejecto, to turn down.] 1. To decline. 2. 
To refuse. 3. To spurn. 4. To signify a determination to struggle 
along without. 

For more detailed information see below. 

Re ject ^ed Risk, rejek'ted risque, n. [L. rejicio; A. S. 
Jiriscian.'] 1. An applicant for life insurance who has been turned 
down by the medical examiner. 2. A sub-standard life. 3. The 
rejection of an applicant casts a dark gloom over the agent who 
rounded him up, dense in proportion to the amount of insurance 
he was to take. 4. A rejected risk quickly becomes dejected as 

— 154 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



well, because he finds he has put off insuring too long, and he 
often begins to wilt immediately after the verdict and may con- 
tinue the process persistently enough to fill an early grave. But 
some rejected risks fool everyone and go on outliving all acknowl- 
edged expectancies as well as the agent who made the futile at- 
tempt to insure them and the M. D. who made the attempt futile. 
5. The rejected risk undergoes a sudden change in his opinion of 
the methods of life insurance companies. Until he yielded him- 
self as an applicant and signed his name to the blank he had been 
leaning back and bracing himself against the efforts of the agent 
to land him. When he met the M. D. he noticed a change, for 
then it was the M. D. who was offering the resistance and who 
seemed as anxious to keep him out as the agent was to get him 
in. 6. When a man finds himself classed as a rejected risk he be- 
gins to want insurance with a great unquenchable yearning. If 
the general public was all as anxious to secure life insurance as 
a newly-rejected risk is, what a cinch the business would be! A 
rejected risk often becomes a chronic applicant. 7. The best treat- 
ment for a rejected risk to take, and his only valid hope for pro- 
longed days, is an annuity. Companies are generally willing to 
sell liberal annuities to such cases; but the v^ay some of these 
alleged wrecks have continued to draw their yearly allowances 
and their breath long after the premium was dead and buried is a 
caution. 

See Applicant, Medical Examiner, etc. 

Re mov'al, n. [L. removeo, to move again.] 1, To change 
the location of insured property; to take it from the building de- 
scribed in the policy. 2. A removal may result in an increase in 
the hazard, and it has always been legally recognized, with but 
few exceptions, as a nullification of the contract, unless a permit 
granting such a performance be issued by the compan3\ This is 
but just. A company may insure a stock of goods in a fireproof 
building, equipped with a moat, an automatic cloud-burst and a 
prosperous run of trade. The owner, in an attack of mental de- 
crepitude, may become enamored with a desire to save rent and 
move his stock into a ramshackle fire-trap, exposed on the north 
by a planing mill, on the east by a livery stable, on the south by 
a perennial clothing-house loss and on the west by a side street 
with two blocks of nothing doing, while the whole place is per- 

-155 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



vaded by germs of an attack of moral hazard. 3. The eccentricity 
of insurance companies as touching removals is annoying to that 
species of human free thinkers who consider it cheaper to move 
than to pay rent. Occasionally a specimen discovers himself 
compelled to move because of rent obligations and contemporane- 
ously unable to budge because of his fire insurance company's 
impecuniosity as to removal permits. [Note. — It costs money to 
print permits.] The outcome may be more accurately imagined 
than described. 4. Loss occasioned by removal which is made 
necessary by fire is recoverable — if the company has assets. The 
distinction should be clearly recognized, however, between such 
a condition and that attending an explosion, where the removal 
takes place immediately prior to the fire, in which case the claim 
can be based only on the market value of the debris after the up- 
heaval, and the damage by fire only will be considered in the 
claim. 

Remov^al Per^mit, n. Permission granted by a fire insur- 
ance company to remove insured goods from one location to an- 
other. This does not mean that the transportation shall be effect- 
ed suddenly by means of a dynamite instigation or any other 
sudden method which might tend to mar the usefulness and mar- 
ket value of said goods. Insurance companies are not anxious 
to assume a blanket responsibility for the welfare of a widely dis- 
tributed collection of household effects. 

Re new'al, n. [Derived from an expiration book (prefera- 
bly the other fellow's).] 1. The act of renewing an insurance 
policy. 2. A profitable and highly enjoyable proceeding, common 
to any popular fire insurance agency. 3. The resurrection which 
follows an expiration. 4. The renewal of a policy is ordinarily a 
simple affair. The agent notifies his client that his policy is about 
to pass in its checks and that he will be delighted to furnish sub- 
stantial consolation with another policy of the same ancestral 
origin as the deceased, at the same rate and in every way as 
worthy of his confidence and respect. Or he says nothing about 
it, but just makes out the new policy and casually leaves it at 
his client's oflBce with as little sensation as possible. These plans 
work well enough when former conditions are unchanged; but 

— 156 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

let the rate be .001 per cent, or more higher than on the late la- 
mented and there is a wide stripe of distress developed forthwith, 
which varies in width and density directly as the square root of 
the increase multiplied by the acceleration. (If you don't be- 
lieve it turn to Corollary XVII). Another cause of friction not 
uncommon arises from a change in the company, which may be 
made desirable or necessary to the agent because of — well, vari- 
ous things; and the client may erupt into a violent art critic, 
most unreasonably pressing his preference for documents adorned 
with smoking mountains, harts' horns or other effects, as the case 
might be. It sometimes takes five dollars' worth of time to un- 
develop such a negative and convince the negater that there is 
more than one brand of good indemnity, just to save a $3.28 com- 
mission. 

Compare Expiration. 

Replace', v. t. See Rebuild. 
Re pre sent a ' tion, See Agency. 
Re pre sent ' a tive; n. See Agent. 



Reserve' rezerv', n. [L. re, again, back, and servo, to 
keep.] 1. A fund set aside to offset a liability. 2. Rainy-day money 
of an insurance company. 3. The chief of these funds is the "re- 
insurance reserve," which is an amount sufficient to buy for all 
the existing policies of the company a good, Christian home in 
some other company if the parent organization quits the business 
by choice or necessity. This reserve is easily and accurately de- 
termined by means of an actuary, a pencil and several tons of 
scratch pads, more or less, according to the size of the company. 
Such a reserve, based upon an accepted table of mortality and 
dealt according to Hoyle, is also known as a "legal reserve," and 
will receive a clean bill of health in any State insurance dispens- 
ary. 4. The term "reserve for unpaid losses" is automatic, in that 
it is self-explanatory. However, its simplicity of comprehensi- 
bility does not detract from its importance as a factor in correct 

-157 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



underwriting. 5. "Reserve for all other liabilities" is as indefinite 
as the term immediately preceding is exact and may cover a mul- 
titude of sins. Under it are included back salaries, rent, subscrip- 
tions to insurance journals and other charitable institutions, etc. 
See Reinsurance. 



Res ' i dent A ' gent, rez' i dent a' gent, n. [Prom resident, 
voting, domiciling; agent, representative.] 1. The representative 
of an insurance company who works his home field and home 
folks. 2. A bona fide, legitimate, licensed insurance writer. 3. 
Opposed to non-resident agent. [Which observe.] 4. Scientific 
(mostly zoological). — The insurance agent common to daily en- 
counter (agens domestica), a species belonging to the great and 
renowned genus homo afflictoetpaucusdies. It is found in all parts 
of the civilized world (and doubtless exists in uncivilized and un- 
discovered wastes as well). It is non-migratory, being observa- 
ble in all climates and in all kinds of weather. On clear and salu- 
brious days it may be seen, without much difliculty, clothed in an 
atmosphere of good cheer and approachable friendliness, besides 
other raiment, while on rainy or inclement days, in addition to 
this fair weather plumage, it affects a flexible univalue wing, so 
to speak (whenever it can borrow one), with which it protects 
itself from the elements. Its distinguishing characteristic is its 
inclination to confine its natural enjoyment of life, liberty and 
the pursuits of happiness, etc., to a limited territory, not wan- 
dering permanently from the home nest — which accounts for its 
scientific alias, possibly. The species genus domestica is also sub- 
divided, some of the chief divisions being ignis agens domestica, 
mta a. d., accidens a. d., et al. 

See Agent, Non-Resident Agent. 



Re turn' Com mis^sion, n. 1. In the event of the cancellation 
of a fire insurance policy, the commission on the return premium. 
2. It thus behooves an agent not to spend his commission as soon 
as he gets it, but to maintain an unearned commission account 
just as companies cherish unearned premium accounts. In this 
way he is relieved of disappointment when the irony of fate digs 
deeply into his cash drawer in the guise of return commissions. 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

Return^ Pre^mium, n. 1. That portion of a premium which 
is returned when a policy is canceled before it becomes due or a 
claim. 2. Insurance companies are very methodi-cal, among other 
things (and they have to be, since curious State representatives 
are continually prying around in their most strictly private cor- 
ners and closets, seeking what "they may devour," as an ancient 
author concisely put it), and it is their custom to file away care- 
fully every premium they receive, neatly labeled and indexed. 
Then, when for some plausible reason or otherwise the policy- 
holder decides he does not want the policy and brings it back, or 
the company gets uneasy about the careless way a policyholder 
has of handling matches, kerosene or his moral hazard, the pol- 
icy is canceled, and that part of the premium which still remains 
of the original amount is unfiled, dusted off and returned to the 
policyholder. 3. It is not uncommonly the case that after a man 
has bought an insurance policy he gets to thinking about it, and 
gradually his cogitations give birth to a doubt as to the com- 
pany's ability or desire to pay in case he does have a fire; he be- 
comes panic-stricken, rushes to the agent who sold him the pol- 
icy and says that he has decided that he is not going to have a 
fire, anyway, and wants his money back. The agent calmly 
makes some figures on a piece of paper, steps to the safe, takes 
out what is left of the man's premium and hands it over to him. 
The look of surprise that spreads over the skeptic's face at this 
juncture is recognized by all insurance men as one of the high 
lights of the business. The man leaves the office somewhat dazed 
and he does not get a block away before he wishes he had not re- 
turned the policy. The agent gloats, for he knows that nine 
times out of ten the risk will burn before another moon has 
waxed and waned. 

See Canceled Policy and consult the short-rate table. 



Re vive', v. t. [F. revivre; L. revivo, re again, vivo live.] 
1. To restore or continue a life insurance policy upon its expira- 
tion. 2. To reinstate. 3. To revitalize. 4. Life insurance agents 
are not only missionaries, but evangelists as well. After having 
converted an improvident heathen to the insurance path it is 
often necessary to conduct a little revival service with the con- 
vert upon each recurring premium-paying period to keep him 

— 159 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



from relapsing into barbarism. Wbere it is discovered that a 
member shows signs of backsliding and an inclination to take 
his chances and let things slide, an exhorter hastens to his side 
and in vivid language portrays to him the certain horrible fate 
that he must expect if he does not hold fast after having once 
taken hold. He calls upon him to remember his family, his busi- 
ness, his neighbors, his family physician, his undertaker and his 
friend, the agent. He appeals to his cupidity by reminding him 
of the enormous profit that will accrue to the company because 
of his first premium should he lapse. [This latter argument 
won't go, however, where the agent donated his commission on 
the first premium.] Ordinarily the agent's eloquence prevails 
and another "revival" is recorded on the books of the company. 
These revival services become less and less necessary as the in- 
suring habit grows on a policyholder. 
Compare Reinstate. 

" revive 

—From Insurance— Thou Cryptograft ! Page 80. 
[NOTB.— I fail to recall on the spur of the moment some of the words in this 
quotation, and take the liberty of supplying their places with dashes, wiiich will 
doubtless not materially interfere with the sense.— I,exicographer.] 

Rl ' der, n. [A. S. ridere, ride.] 1. One who or that which 
rides. 2. Technically, a clause, form, slip or paragraph, whatso- 
ever, printed or written, which may be on a separate piece of 
paper, but is attached to an insurance policy and made a part of 
the contract. It is lots simpler than it sounds. You see, the 
groundwork of policies may be in the main the same, but with 
such a variety of risks there are conditions in each individual 
case which are peculiar thereto, and to cover these idiosyncracies 
riders are prepared, which are attached to the general form pol- 
icy by means of good mucilage, or poor mucilage and patience. 
[Note. — Rough Notes Company has good mucilage for sale. Send 
for prices. (Paid adv. t. w. f.).] Insurance policies are like 
horses — some carry single, some double, while others carry as 
many riders as can stick on. 3. Caution. — No rider is unimpor- 
tant, and the text of each should be carefully read before the pol- 
icy is delivered. 

Refer to Blanks, etc. 

" Am queklor ridere ak 
Prag morke wydan mak." 

—From the original. Original what? 

— 160- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Risk, risque, n. [L. reseco; re back (or out), seco to cut, 
meaning "to cut out."] 1. That which is subject or liable to de- 
struction or injury from certain hazards or contingencies. 2. 
Something, to cover which, insurance is written. 3. Risks which 
attract the solicitous attention of insurance companies occur in 
the three great kingdoms into which all things mundane fall — 
animal, vegetable and mineral, (a) The first is the province of 
life, accident, liability et al. underwriting, and is not neglected, 
as any "animal" therein will cheerfully testify. The extreme un- 
certainty and modesty of the vital spark is brought so forcibly to 
the attention of its possessors by insurance agents continually 
that they must believe it, although at times, as the poet says, 
"the spark is fanned to a flame of passion through too much 
blowing." Y/hen that happens somebody stands a good chance of 
getting "fired" and the feeble-spark graft shows a falling mar- 
ket, (b) The second and third kingdoms — vegetable and min- 
eral — fall to the particular heritage of the fire insurance agent. 
He goes hand in hand with the architect who plans the harmoni- 
ous combinations of the products of these two kingdoms in edi- 
fices, structures and other buildings, and he goes arm in arm 
with the capitalist to the city offices to get the building permit, 
and he abides with said capitalist like a brother — worse, like a 
shadow on a sunny day — until he has secured the line. It may 
be on a henhouse or a coal shed, or it may be on a sky-scraper or 
only a Newport cottage, but the man with the money and the 
nerve to spend it thus recklessly is, to the fire insurance agent, 
a "capitalist" and an object of loving interest and attention. 4. 
"Risk" may also be used as a verb — without incurring criticism. 
Sometimes synonymous with Hazard. 

" Of course he will write the risk but then 
In case of loss you'll have to come again." 
—From Felines and Surplus Lines. Sixth and Seventh lyines. 



Run, V. (ran; run; running.) [A. S. rinnan, to chase one'? 
self.] I. V. t. 1. To operate, as "to run an insurance agency." One 
may run an agency on a paying basis or he may run it into the 
ground. Paying bases come high sometimes, and then the busi- 
ness is easily run into the ground. Strange, but true, the duller 
a business is the less effort it takes to put the whole shooting 
match so far out of sight that there will not even be a dirty blot- 

I. D.-ll. -161- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



ter or a canceled postage stamp left to mark its grave. 2. Run 
may be used with equal force and the same poetic application to 
insurance companies. II. v. it. 1. To hasten away rapidly in a 
great hurry. 2. To make one's self scarce. 3. A habit or custom 
common to embarrassed agents or insurance employes — financially 
embarrassed. 4. To skip. 5. To retire precipitously. In fact, 
there are many other terms and expressions which might be said 
to convey the same meaning. 6. Surety companies have been organ- 
ized to help break modest ones of their excessive timidity. 

Run, n. 1. A season. 2. Spell. 3. Streak. 4. A common ex- 
pression is "we have had a very bad run of losses." Occasionally 
one overhears, "I have a great run of luck." Because one may be 
heard oftener than the other is not so much due to the fact that 
the one condition really predominates over the other as that the 
proneness of the human mind is to magnify trials and overlook 
blessings. 



Sal ' vage, n. [Syriac. sTcalvajgex, meaning "fire sale, 99 per 
cent, off."] 1. The product of a salvage corps. 2. Goods or other 
property rescued from a fire. Do not, however, erroneously refer 
to human beings who happened to be saved from the flames as 
salvage. If said human beings carried life insurance, they might 
be called life insurance salvage, but it would be a new use of the 
word and might get one into trouble. 3. Salvage is generally 
used to stock "fire sales" and "great reduction smoke damage 
sacrifices." Some people would rather wear a smoked or water- 
soaked suit of clothes which has been marked down from $10 to 
$12 than to wear it at the original price undamaged. 4. Salvage 
in the rough is not an inspiring commodity to deal with, but ad- 
justers spend most of their time mussing around piles of it, 
crawling through charred wreckage to get next to it, wading in 
flooded cellars just to get a glimpse of it, writing about it, talking 
about it, dreaming about it, and, upon occasions, rare, of course, 
some have been known even to swear about it. If it were not for 
salvage there would be no adjusters, no fire sales, no smoke dam- 
age sales, no partial losses, no wrecking companies, no hope of an 
underwriting profit — blessed be salvage. 

— 162 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

Sal'vage Corps, sal' vaje core, n. [Metropolitan.] 1. A body 
or company of men who save and protect property from fire. 2. 
That part of a fire department the maintenance of which a mu- 
nicipality generally turns over to the insurance companies or to 
private interests. A city will calmly purchase new chemical en- 
gines, hook and ladder trucks, steam fire engines, hose wagons, 
shoe and metal polish, soap, insect exterminators and greased 
lightning to be used in the alarm telegraph system, but if any one 
in the private walks of life should suggest the installment of a 
nice little marked-down salvage corps he would instantly be 
tabooed, whatever that is, tarred and feathered, and henceforth 
and forever thereafter disenfranchised. (This latter form of tor- 
ture is said to be quite painful and embarrassing, and leaves a 
mark like vaccinating, tattooing or other caprices of advanced 
civilization.) 3. A salvage corps is generally composed of several 
men (sometimes more and sometimes less), who live in a house 
with a horse and a light wagon, which is equipped (the wagon 
only) with axes, lanterns and a lot of neatly-folded dog tents or 
"covers," as they are technically designated. During lulls in 
business these men occupy themselves much as other species of 
firemen, and you will often find checker players among them who 
are equipped with a dorsal fin, or horseshoe artists who can deco- 
rate a pin set in the ground fifty feet from the nearest exposure 
with a full set of low-cut passe horseshoes, while one hand is tied 
and one eye is shut. As in other buildings devoted to this style 
of public utility, a very sensitive and highly irritating gong is 
enshrined in a prominent place and is liable to violent attacks 
of ringing at most inopportune and unexpected moments, night 
or day, to escape the annoyance of which the corps retires pre- 
cipitately from the place and remains away until the gong sub- 
sides or until the corps loses interest in the "still" or conflagra- 
tion, which generally manages to occupy its attention while at 
large. 4. Of course, the chief end of a salvage corps is not check- 
ers and horseshoes, and it shows very evident marks of animation 
in the presence of a fire. One of the most lasting impressions a 
provincial will receive who inadvertently gladdens some metrop- 
olis (and brick trust) with his receptive presence is a salvage 
corps in full action, if his pursuit of business and pleasure will 
permit him to tear away long enough to observe one when oppor- 

— 163- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

tunity arises. He is astonished to note the asbestos manner in 
which the members of the corps eat fire and breathe smoke. He 
thrills with expectant delight when one passes into a flaming 
doorway with his arms apparently full of dirty laundry, and is 
slightly disappointed to see him return later, empty-handed, only 
parbroiled instead of crisply incinerated. A salvage corps man 
who has been spreading covers for two hours in a sprinklered 
wholesale coffee house is no subject for the joyous embrace of a 
butterfly of fashion with her glad wings and powder on. He is 
more flt for the arms of Morpheus, if the expression is permissi- 
ble. 

See Fire Department. 

Syn. Insurance Patrol. 

" Just why a salvage corps should be 
Divorced, sans alimony, likewise fee, 
From the fire department puzzles me." 

—From The Reveries of a Manager. Tenth reverie. 

Scale, skale, v. t. [L. scala, from scando, to climb, as a 
policyholder.] 1. To cut down a policy in settlement. 2. To knock 
off a specified amount for specified or unexpected reasons. 3. 
Some companies resort to scaling per necessity, on the principle 
"it is better to pay a little than not to pay at all." This painful 
necessity commonly confronts assessment concerns. It's a part 
of the system. 4. Graveyard-mongers also indulge in scaling of 
claims, the time during which the policy has been in force being 
made to determine how much of the face of the policy the com- 
pany will retain. Some claimants have been known to recover 
almost as much as was paid in as premiums. 5. This style of set- 
tlement is sometimes referred to as scaly treatment, but this is 
not a scientific expression. 



Sched'' ule, schedule, n. [L. scheda, a leaf of paper. (Evo- 
lution has done wonders for this word.)] 1. A rating formula. 
2. A scientific method of making fire insurance rates. 3. The 
crystallization of general experience into definite applicable form. 
4. A schedule is the analysis of a risk into its hazards, with the 
price marks attached. Before the advent of the schedule the in- 
spector was compelled to depend a good deal upon his own judg- 

— 164 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

ment and the prices bid by his competitors. In pre-schedule days 
the inspector was apt to see the risk as a whole, and when he 
guessed a rate he was always anxious to see what the other fel- 
low had guessed, nor was he generally so tenacious to his venture 
but that he could be persuaded to pare off a shade to make it less 
obnoxious to the property owner. But with the invasion of sci- 
ence into the business of fire underwriting came its automatic, 
adjustable, comprehensive and awe-inspiring product — the sched- 
ule. All the uncertainty of rate-making has been dissipated (the 
uncertainty, notice). Through a carefully digested knowledge of 
what has happened it is now ascertainable to a nicety what will 
happen under like conditions. Instead of a general vista of rooms, 
openings, machinery, shafts, skylights and inflammability, as the 
risk used to appear to an inspector, it now sorts itself out in al- 
phabetical order, classifies itself like a State museum, counts 
fours, presents arms and passes in review; so all the inspector 
has to do is to label the items, add the charges to the basis rate, 
subtract the credits and catch his train. It looks as though an 
oflBce boy might do it, but somehow two experts can begin at op- 
posite ends of a block and work towards each other, applying 
the same schedule, and when they meet in the middle their rates 
will often be as far apart as an ordinary Legislature and common 
sense. However, this discrepancy is not charged to any fault in 
the schedule, but to the annoying trait common to man — individ- 
uality. We have horseless wagons, wireless telegraph (there 
seems to be no hope as yet for wireless politics), smokeless pow- 
der, powderless girls (?), girlless pianos, pianoless flats, and so 
the possibility of inspectorless schedules may not be very remote. 
Until then, however, it can hardly be expected that even the most 
perfect schedule can be applied as noiselessly and as free from 
friction as the advancing shades of night. 

"The schedule is no gentle jest." 

—From Homer's What I Did to Troy. 8th Round. 



Sched ^ ule=Rat ^ ing, sked' yul-rat' ing, n. [Lat. scheda 
and reor. ratus.'\ 1. The scientific method of fixing the price of 
indemnity from fire loss. 2. A system of making rates according 
to an accepted and uniform schedule instead of by guess and by 
chance. These schedules are prepared by the wise ones of the pro- 

— 165 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



fession from data obtained through years of experience. Where 
a schedule is to be applied it is not customary to use a paint- 
brush, a broom or a force pump and a sprayer, but just ordinary 
common sense and a pair of good eyes. To apply a schedule prop- 
erly it is necessary to see the risk itself and not to depend alto- 
gether upon its outline on the map. The interior of the risk must 
be observed as well as the exterior. (Note — Tar soap is good for 
the removal of grime and grease and court-plaster may be ob- 
tained from any accident insurance agent.) 3. Schedule rating 
reduces the element of gambling in fire underwriting to the mini- 
mum and is said to be the only "system" that can win in this 
great game of chance. 

See Universal Mercantile Schedule et al. 

Se cu'ri ties, se kew' ri tis, n. (Commonly plural as an in- 
surance term.) [L. securitas, a cinch.] 1. Documents or evi- 
dences of invested assets. 2. Interest-bearing resources. 3. The 
spirit of unrest which agitates the human race extends also to 
its creatures and instrumentalities; thus an idle dollar is as ab- 
horrent to the eternal fitness of things as an idle man; so, as the 
eagle comes flapping into the home office of an insurance company 
in the role of a premium, he may not be allowed to roost over 
night even, but the company's hired man shoos him away in the 
shape of a security, with the sibilant warning: "Go to! See 
that thou rest not. Earn thy 4 per cent., and, when thou re- 
turnest, see that the spread of thy wings has not lessened and 
that thy market value has not reached its p. m. in Wall street." 
4. Securities are productive assets. In most large cities there are 
markets where these products are on sale. Any one desiring to 
buy a mess will find generally that his purse must be larger than 
his market basket. It also takes more capital to start a securities 
stand in one of these markets than it does to open up an apple 
stall in the public forum. Besides other products common to 
rural landscapes, farmers also raise a species of securities known 
as mortgages, which prove universally popular and are always in 
season. 5. Securities is a term with which all would doubtless 
be willing to be intimately familiar. 

Selec ' tion, se lek' shun, n. [L. selectio (n), from selectus, 
p. p. of seligo, to cop out] 1. The general resultant condition or 

— 166 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

standard of a group or covey of life insurance policyholders as 
superinduced or influenced by exactions, conditions or circum- 
stances under which they were gathered. 2. Selection, as an in- 
surance term, suggests the winnowing property of insurance. In 
life insurance the general scheme, as a whole, possesses this sift- 
ing, sorting influence, and by it a community is readily arranged 
in its general classiflcations. But, contrary to the process of 
grain winnowing, life insurance selection does not tend to retain 
the best and cast off the more undesirable, for the mechanism of 
selection is such that the persistent premium payers are found 
to be the ones who are suspicious of their mortal habitation, those 
who have discovered that the wiring of their nervous system is de- 
fective, that their heart pump valves are worn, that the chemical 
laboratory shelves of their digestive apparatus are about out of 
some important ingredient, that their calendar in general shows 
but a few leaves more to be turned; while the hearty, leather- 
lunged, nerveless, red-blooded, living picture of self-confident 
health, with a steel-ribbed, double-riveted, boiler-iron digestive 
economy, scoffs at his need of insurance and lapses as soon as he 
recovers from the surprise of having signed on the dotted line. 
3. Individual companies, also, often present characteristic condi- 
tions in their contracts and methods of getting business, which 
result in selections peculiar to themselves. With some, because 
of strict medical examinations, the selection shows a high stand- 
ard almost approaching octogenarianism, while in others a "sub- 
standard" life provision will put a gleeful ring in the voice of 
their competitors as they regretfully call attention to this so- 
called flaw in the fabric. 

"'Selection is an involuntary choice of a standard of risks which might be 
remedied or not as the case might be."— From Selection and Expectation. Ch. II. 

Sep a ra ' tion, n. [L. separatio.l 1. The conversion of a 
mixed agency into a Union or non-Union office. 2. The forcible 
ejection of one class of companies from an agency to clear the air 
for those that remain. 3. The reform which established-faith fire 
insurance companies have been trying to accomplish with persist- 
ency, more or less spasmodic as to fervor, for many years. It has 
long been an annoyance for companies of this persuasion to be 
forced to touch elbows in the same agency with non-conformists. 
The untrammelled freedom with which the latter dipped into the 

— 167- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

common bowl of premium soup with an over-sized commission 
spoon, ate with their knives and wiped their mouths on the table- 
cloth was aggravating to say the least. The brazen efforts which 
these free-thinkers put forth to secure stand-ins shocked the sen- 
sibilities and likewise the profits of those of the established faith. 
Although many things contributed to make the association mu- 
tually disagreeable both were alv/ays reluctant to retire and leave 
the spread to the other. All attempts to force separation have 
failed of complete success. Graded commissions contingent upon 
the Unionizing of the agency was one quite effectual persuasive 
that was tried upon the non-conformists. 

See Graded Commissions, Western Union. 



Shelve, vt. [Ice. sTcelgja-sk, sloping.] 1. Literally, to place 
on shelves, as supplies; figuratively, to leave there. 2. An agent 
sometimes takes the supplies of the company which he does not 
expect to use, just to keep them out of a rival's office. The blanks 
are then shelved. They sometimes encounter the same fate in 
offices v/here they have been enjoying friendly consideration when 
the agent becomes aggrieved because a certain line has been cur- 
tailed or turned down, or because the special agent wore his poli- 
tics too prominently, showed too much attention to a rival agent 
or committed some other glaring irregularity. 3. A home oflBce 
can usually discern, without special notification, the fact that its 
supplies in a certain agency have been shelved. This is commonly 
indicated by a cessation in the regular flow of daily reports, and 
the intensity with which the shelving is being applied is deter- 
mined by taking 30 per cent, of the cube root of the time (stand- 
ard) since the receipt of the last daily. The only way to correct 
the case is to square the agent. There is no set formula for this, 
but every wise special has different remedies for different cases. 

'* Shelved supplies breed no losses." 

—From The Silver Lining. Page 1621. 

Short Rate,n. [Tech. Ins.] 1. Rate charged on fire in- 
surance policy which is canceled before it expires. 2. For con- 
venience a table has been prepared which shows all the possible 
combinations that can be played in short-rate transactions, and 

— 168 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



every clerk in an insurance agency, no matter how much he 
weighs, is expected to commit it to memory. Unless a chap has 
cylinders in his head like a phonograph, it is no easy thing to 
stow away a perfect record of a short-rate table, and as, in addi- 
tion to this, an intimate speaking acquaintance with the multipli- 
cation table is also earnestly required of these aspirants for a 
place on the first round of the underwriting ladder, it is not 
strange that raw material is scarce and that most boys prefer to 
win affluence by less forbidding ladders. (The foregoing is 
strictly imaginary and can be believed or not, as the reader is in- 
clined.) 3. Short rate also rhymes with short skate, which, how- 
ever, may be an irrelevant coincident. 4. Short rates are often a 
by-product of moral hazard. 
See Cancellation et al. 

"Charge a short rate—s&ve a loss." 

From Insurance Proverbs. XI, 2. 



Short Term, adj. 1. Not long term. 2. One year or less. 
3. Short-term business is attractive, as it does not keep assets 
long tied up in the reinsurance reserve. 

Side-Line A ' gent, n. [CoUoq. U. S.] 1. A grocer, doctor, 
undertaker, saloon-keeper or any other merchant or professional 
man who takes an insurance agency "just as a filler." His versa- 
tility makes the ordinary humdrum life of a specialist a burden. 
He often acquires so many side-lines that he does not know which 
is the main cable. Life with such a man is well spiced. To be 
sure, he sometimes gets his lines mixed and has to turn over six- 
teen bolts of calico, move two flour barrels and disturb the medi- 
tations of several sacks of seed potatoes to reach his insurance 
supplies. Occasionally he forgets to date a policy or omits a 
mortgage clause or neglects some other minor detail; but this 
makes no difference — unless there is a fire, and then life, with 
him, becomes real and earnest. It is this class of agents who 
annoy the real article by handling rates carelessly, and, further- 
more, they have been known to forget to include their commis- 
sion. Such lapses of memory may be excusable considering all 
they have on their minds. 2. Side-line agencies are the fruit of 
the multiple agency habits of many companies. 

-169- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

Sin'gle Prem^i um, n. A premium to carry the policy to ex- 
piration or maturity. 
See Premium. 

Sky Light, n. [From sky and light.'] 1. An architectural 
wart on the roof of a building to facilitate the communication of 
flames. 2. Its success in this line has long been acknowledged by 
fire insurance companies, which have penalized it with compli- 
mentary charges in the rate. It used to be constructed of wood, 
pitch and glass, carefully designed, with a view to rapid combus- 
tion, but it became so effective that now every effort is being made 
to see how fireproof it can be made and still serve as an access 
to neighboring conflagrations. 3. It is also used as a means of 
lighting interiors of buildings. 

SkyScra ^ per, n. [U. S.] 1. A modern building of great 
height. 2. A building that scrapes the sky. Owing to the peculiar 
composition of the sky this can be done without seriously defac- 
ing its usefulness in scenic effects. Notwithstanding this fact, in 
Boston an edict has gone forth limiting the depth of the scratch, 
presumably because the streets are so crooked. In New York 
and Chicago an effort is being made to make the snow-line the 
limit, but if it does not materialize quickly it is predicted that 
citizens of Mars and other planets will secure an injunction 
against the earth's circulating in its present proximate orbit. 
3. Sky-scrapers are the product of the characteristic American 
talent to rise to the occasion. With fabulous real estate values, 
overspread with such a depth of the air of freedom, manufactured 
in its purest form only in the United States, and to be had for 
the taking, the sky-scraper is the natural result. It grows 
highest on the most valuable ground. It grows quickly also. It 
takes less time to build a thirty-story sky-scraper in America 
than it does to construct an idea in some other countries. 4. The 
American sky-scraper is now being raised successfully in several 
large cities of the English Isles and Europe from seeds secured 
in the United States. Just what will happen after the sky-scraper 
sheds its bloom and leaves in the falltime of its career is awaited 
with some interest and apprehension, and, by the more timid ones, 
at a distance; but it would hardly be worth while for any curious 

-170 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

person to take his stand opposite a sky-scraper and wait for its 
ultimate dissolution. If he tried to look at the upper stories long 
enough to detect the first movement he would soon become chron- 
ically afflicted with an oberstromulous neck. 5. Sky-scrapers are 
of particular interest to fire underwriters, as they are perfectly 
fireproof and make most spectacular fires when they burn. The 
only effective remedies for a sky-scraper blaze are standpipes and 
a roof-garden hose. 6. Sky-scrapers appeal to casualty companies 
as well, because of their elevator systems, which sometimes de- 
posit passengers at the ground floor as claims. 
See Building, Congested District. 

Slip, n. 1. A conveniently arranged blank form for the com- 
pilation of data, as an inspection slip. 2. Slip, a relative of the 
verb slide, also figures somewhat extensively in underwriting. 
"There is many a slip," etc., is also applicable, but these are not 
technical, and need not receive further comment. 

So'cialism, so' shul ism, n. See Praternalism, 



So Heritor, so lis' it ur, n. [F. solliciteur, to chsise.'] 1. One 
who or that which solicits. 2. One who canvasses for insurance. 
3. Personification of patience, perseverance and fate. 4. It is cus- 
tomary for the larger agencies to employ solicitors, who scour, 
rake, scrape, sift, screen and bolt the city for every possible (and 
impossible) risk that may exist, in return for which they are 
paid a commission on the business they secure — this in addition 
to the exceptional opportunities for extending their circle of ac- 
quaintance and knowledge of local geography which the work af- 
fords. What a solicitor needs most, next to a license, is legs — 
plural and enduring. It cuts no material figure whether they 
are of the parenthetical cast or whether they are sociably inti- 
mate at the knees, whether moderately long or not unseemly 
abbreviated, whether adorned at the extremities with pigeon toes 
or pigeon heels — just so they are of the get-there-with-both-feet 
variety. The successful solicitor is no pale-faced, office-bleached 
hibernator (nobody said Hibernian), but is an outdoor, weather- 
scorning, night-and-morning hustler. 5. An all-around man — all 

— 171 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



around town. (Any one caught indulging in a smile because of 
this pitiful attempt will he compelled to sign the pledge.) 
See Canvasser. 

"The solicitous soZictfor solicited solicitously." 

—From Sort of Resortus, Page 8026. 

Sound Val ^ ue, n. (Note. — Am somewhat uncertain wheth- 
er two words, one an adjective, can be a noun. — Lexi.) [U. S. 
sound, unimpaired, and value, worth having.] 1. The market de- 
sirability of a building or stock of goods or other insured prop- 
erty before a fire. 2. The value as contemplated in the policy. 
[Colloq. valued-policy States.] 3. Unfortunately, the sound value 
of a piece of property does not command much serious thought 
until, as such, it is a mere memory picture on the brain, a cold, 
cFammy string of figures on a ledger page (or whatever book it 
is that such things are kept in) which has been fished out of a 
warped safe nestling in a bed of water-soaked ashes. To be sure, 
an inspector, or two or three or a hundred, may have taken a look 
about the place, and the proprietor may have been of an observ- 
ing turn of mind; still, when the adjusters, the appraisers, the 
claimant and the local solons gather about a few carloads of 
ashes and several hogsheads of freshly leached lye (no insinua- 
tions whatever intended; purely a coincidence), the question of 
sound value is likely to result in some remarkable exhibitions of 
the erratic fallibility of the human thinker. Some foresighted 
institutions are now keeping a current statement from day to 
day of the sound value of the whole outfit, and where such is the 
case the adjustment of a loss is going to be so easy that the ad- 
justers will be ashamed to draw their salaries — nit (Greek word 
meaning scarcely). 

Spec ' ial A' gent, spesh' al-a' jent, n. Fire insurance.— 1. 
The traveling man or drummer of an insurance company. The 
finger tip with which the brainwork of the company keeps in 
touch with the field. Note. — Probably the most remarkable thing 
about the construction of the human finger tip is its wonderful 
nerve system. 2. The life of a special-agent is a correct imita- 
tion of a flowery bed of ease. All he has to do is to ride around 
in a Pullman sleeper or the caboose of a local freight, as the case 
might be, eat alternately at swell hotels and cross-roads lunch 

— 172 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



counters, jolly disgruntlea agents into a semblance of exuberant 
joy, inspect risks of all kinds at all hours, lift supplies, discourage 
his expense account, keep off of the risks that will burn, adjust 
losses, keep in touch with the baseball teams so that when the 
g. m. comes down he can post him on the fine points of the play- 
ers, rate towns, avoid reporters, publicity and smallpox and then 
put in his spare time reading insurance journals and otherwise 
improving his mind. 

See State Agent, Field Man. 

Life Insurance. — 1. An agent working a territory more exten- 
sive than "local"; generally including two or more counties. 2. 
Quite often synonymous with local agent. 

See Local Agent. 

Spe ' cial Con ' tract, spe'shal kon'trakt, n. 1. A special 

inducement given a life insurance policyholder by some compa- 
nies through which he receives certain profits or privileges. 2. 
An agreement with a given number of policyholders to pay or 
credit them with a percentage on new business written in a spe- 
cified time and place, in return for their support or advice. 3. 
A method often resorted to by new companies or companies enter- 
ing new territory. 4. Naturally special contracts are generally 
offered to prominent citizens. A man who has had two or three 
special contracts brought into the focus of his optical dispensa- 
tion is liable to take that for a hint that he is due for local may- 
oralty, and he may even have visions of gubernatorialism, Mor- 
ganism, gourmandism, ostracism, the White House, or even the 
postmastership of a fourth-class postoflSce. Therefore, those who 
have the distribution of such contracts in charge should be care- 
ful not to double up injudiciously on the same prospect in the 
same week. 

Spe '' cial Haz ' ard, spesh' al haz' ard, n. [It. speziale az- 
zardo.'] 1. A risk with a tendency towards quick combustion. 2. 
A form of temptation which the devil delights to dangle before 
the underwriter's eyes continually. The attractive bait, a fat 
premium, always covers a sharp hook which will sooner or later 
land the underwriter whose sporting tendencies impel him to 
gamble a nibble now and then. 2. Special hazards do not always 

— 1T3 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



burn; some have passed through years and finally been torn 
down, but when they catch fire they are always "total losses." 3. 
Classically referred to as "a blamed good thing to fight shy of." 
Compare Fire-trap. 

Spe cif ^ ic In sur ^ ance, spe sif ik in shur' ans, n. 1. Insur- 
ance which distinctly defines the property covered. 2. Exclusive. 
3. The opposite of blanket. [To which kindly refer.] 4. For ex- 
ample, one company may write specific on building and another 
specific on stock, then neither have to pay providing there is no 
fire. But if the building burns and the stock is not destroyed, 
the first would have a total loss, while the second would wink 
the other eye. If the stock burned, however, and the building 
was uninjured, the second v/ould pay and the other would wink. 
In either case all the adjusters in the country would flock around 
to see hov/ the miracle was done. 5. Specific insurance is a good 
provision for the insured, as he has no trouble in deciding on 
what to save in case of a fire and what to leave to the devouring 
elements. It also discourages a sudden congestion of a, lot of 
passe items in the path of a fire and checks the fanatical enthu- 
siasm of thrifty neighbors who have out-of-date furniture which 
they are willing to sacrifice to the flames of a next-door fire if 
there is a chance for a phcenix-like resurrection of values plus 
from the ashes in the way of insurance money. 6. Specific insur- 
ance prevents the production of mahogany ashes from oak orig- 
inals, of a linotype wreck from a job press, of a warped threshing 
machine from a last year's corn sheller, etc. 

See Blanket, Non-Specific, and repent. 



Spon ta ' ne ous Com bus ' tion,, n. [Pollock, cponknaubust- 
sM, we need the money.] 1. A fire originating without human 
agency. 2. A voluntary fire, due to chemical or physical condi- 
tions. 3. Oily rags or waste, improperly cured hay, new wheat or 
other grains are prolific causes of spontaneous combustion. Un- 
der the right conditions they will generate heat, sufficient finally 
to ignite. Parlor matches, painters' outfits, moral hazards and 
overinsurance also answer to the roll call under this charge. Al- 
though spontaneous combustion may be independent of direct hu- 
man agencies, yet human agencies may prepare the proper condi- 

— 174- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



tions to produce spontaneous combustion. If there had been fire 
departments, rich insurance companies, oily rags and oily citi- 
zens in the days of Solomon, he could not have delivered himself 
of a more cogent bit of wisdom touching spontaneous combus- 
tion than the foregoing. 4. As far as the firemen are concerned, it 
makes but little difference whether a fire started as an enterpris- 
ing individual effort or as the handiwork of a two-legged firebug 
— the flames are all of the same water-consuming variety and will 
bear the same treatment; but insurance companies interested in 
the affair are always curious as to how much human agency en- 
tered into the dose. Possibly their interest is explainable by the 
fact that it is a case of "To pay or not to pay," according to the 
origin. 5. Occasionally a spontaneous combustion entertainment 
is pulled off in a sudden, unexpected and most pronounced man- 
ner, distributing the building in which the chemical action took 
place and its contents over an entire municipality and producing 
a generally disordered appearance over the whole community. 
This is also called an explosion, for short. 
See Burn, Conflagration, etc. 



Sprink ' ler E quip ' ment, spring' klr e kwip' ment, n. 1. A 
system of pipes charged with water and fitted with valves, called 
heads, closed by fusible links or keys which, when melted by a 
slight raise in temperature, release the flood. 2. An amateur 
cloud-burst done up in an original package. 3. Sprinkler-equip- 
ments are supposed to get busy only when the plant is threatened 
by fire; but they sometimes grow tired of their sedentary life 
and fear that they are not paying for their keep, so they let go 
with no apparent provocation. This is known, scientifically, as 
sprinkler-leakage, but, by the vulgar, is called a very different 
name. Sprinkler-equipments often select Sunday afternoons, 
when no one is around, for these unappreciated exhibitions of zeal, 
not being conversant with the Sunday closing laws as affecting 
wet goods. If the same is not discovered before Monday morning 
the proprietor might as well open up a natatorium at once and 
be done with it. 4. Sprinkler-equipments have a very depressing 
effect on rates. 5. Caution — Never examine a sprinkler-head with 
a candle to see if it is all right when you are wearing a dress suit. 

See Fire-extinguisher, Sprinkler, Leakage, etc. 

-175- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Sprin ^ kler Leak ' age, n. 1. Leakage due to accidental 
opening of a sprinkler. 2. You may call it leakage if you want to, 
but if you have ever been present upon an occasion when a neigh- 
boring sprinkler head undertook to attract your attention to its 
presence by leaking several gallons per second onto your newly 
pressed spring suit, you would find a blotter and a sponge sadly 
inadequate to remove the evidences of the trickle. Even an en- 
tire stranger would note the change in your appearance and would 
mistake you for a reformed suicide. 3. This little facetious trait 
sometimes noticeable in sprinklers has given rise to a certain 
amount of apprehension, which has been met and placated by so- 
called "sprinkler leakage insurance." (This is the first step 
towards flood insurance.) [Note. — The foregoing suggests a 
broad definition of the function of insurance as the "placation of 
apprehension." This has no bearing on "sprinkler leakage" par- 
ticularly, and shows how much more the readers of this work 
may get thai, they had hoped for. There is no niggardly attempt 
to turn them off with the bare information relating to the word 
in question, but bright, cheery nuggets of wisdom are thr^own in 
for full measure regardless.] 

See Sprinkler Equipment and call the salvage corps. 



Stamp '' ing Clerk, n. A clerk in a local board, who ap- 
proves and stamps daily reports. 



Stamp'ing Sec ''re tar y, n. The secretary of a local board 
who approves and stamps daily reports. 
Compare Compact Manager. 



Stamp Tax, n. (Obs., thank Providence.) [Coined by U. S. 
Congress in 1898.] 1. A tax levied on insurance companies to ob- 
tain funds for enabling the United States to show Spain where 
to get off. 2. Upon the issue of invitations by Uncle Sam for 
brave men who were willing to sacrifice themselves upon the 
altar of liberty and so forth, there was such a general response 
from upderwriters throughout the country that it looked as if 
"Ve important business of insuring lives, property and other per- 

— 176 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



ishables would be suspended while the fracas continued; so the 
government selected a few and told the rest to stay at home and 
lick stamps if they were bound to lick something or somebody. 
This was meant to be humorous, but the underwriters did not see 
anything funny in it. They were permitted to buy the stamps, 
paying a price which some alleged to be somewhat above the 
cost of production. This action was really a kindness to the 
Spaniards. Just imagine an army of ten to twenty-thousand life 
insurance agents advancing on the unsuspecting enemy — each 
carrying a rate-book in one hand and a bunch of blank applica- 
tions in the other, while everj^ pocket contained forty rounds of 
"literature"! Here, in times of peace, one will put ten to flight 
and ten will chase a thousand. The war would not have lasted 
long enough to have taken a place in history. 3. It is estimated 
that several thousand acres of stamps were licked by insurance 
agents. Judging by the recent growth of many of the companies 
they represent it must have added to their stock of stick-to-itive-- 
ness. [Laughter and applause.] 



Stand ' ard, adj. 1. Basis. 2. Figurative perfection. 3. 
That which, in a schedule, is taken as a basis or unit, and which 
is not subject to charges or credits. Schedules have a standard 
building, standard city, standard rate, standard risk, standarr? 
wall, etc. 

See Schedule. 

Stand Pipe, n. 1. A permanent line of heavy iron pipe ex- 
tending from the ground to the roof of a building, having hose 
couplings or connections at the ground and on every floor, either 
on the outside of the building, often in connection with the fire 
escape, or on the inside. 2. The solution of the control of sky- 
scraper building fires. 3. To be worth while, standpipes must be 
inspected occasionally to see that the threads of the couplings are 
in good order, that no brickbats have taken to nesting in them, 
that rust is not weakening their resisting qualities, that the valves 
are closed, that rag pickers are not taking them home as souve- 
nirs, etc. One of the most important things to be attended to is 
to be certain that the popular style of hose coupling thread in the 

I D-M. -177- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



fire department is harmonious with that of the standpipe. A man 
can afford to be unique and eccentric about the way he parts his 
hair or wears his prosperity, but when it comes to coupling 
threads on a standpipe he must have his threads right-hand or 
left-hand and so many threads to the inch, according to the local 
pattern, or he'll regret it. It has happened more than once that 
firemen have exuberantly lost as much as a minute and a half 
trying to lit a right-hand hose thread to a left-hand standpipe 
thread, while the need of water in the upper stories would have 
shamed the Sahara. Such a predicament is very embarrassing 
to firemen, and they are liable to forget themselves and say un- 
kind and stronger things. 4. Standpipes may also be used as a 
mode of egress and ingress to a building, but elevators are more 
popular. 

State Sia per vFsIois, -vizh' un, n. [Idio(ma)tic U. S.] 1. 
A custom of supervision to which companies must submit in every 
State they enter. 2. Another case of too many cooks. 3. An out- 
growth of the laudable determination of American citizenship to 
exercise to the limit the free and independent right of sovereign 
Statehood. Insurance companies are often inclined to believe that 
the aforesaid right is over-trained. An insurance company must, 
chameleon-like, adapt itself to the local requirements of every 
State in which it operates. It does no good to kick, nor attempt 
to look brown when the local color is green, nor to belong to 
euchre clubs when the law prohibits congregating, nor to pay for 
goods at their market value if the statutes say they must be pur- 
chased according to the pricemark attached whether it may have 
been absent-mindedly raised by the proprietor or not, nor to wear 
rubies when the style, according to law, is diamonds or some 
other brand of securities. If a company does not admire its mode 
of treatment it can get out. 4. State supervision assures the com- 
panies of frequent friendly visits from a certain class of officials 
who become a part of the great scheme, less for their health than 
for other things. They make the most of opportunities — oppor- 
tunities and insurance companies look alike to them. 5. The fruit 
of a plant is conceded to be a sufficient letter of introduction. The 
fruit of State-supervision is taxes, valued-policy laws, anti-com- 
pact laws, anti-co-insurance laws and all other kinds of get-off- 
the-earth laws and inimical legislation, reciprocal complications, 

— 178 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



fees, hold-up examinations and general turmoil and cussedness; 
which impels us to display our knowledge of Greek by summing 
it all up with the trite expression "nuff sed." 

See Inimical Legislation, Insurance Commissioner, Stat© In- 
surance Report et al. 

Step Rate, n. [Coined in the nineteenth century.] 1. A 
plan of life insurance providing for an increasing premium year 
by year, or the natural premium. 2. Renev/able yearly at at- 
tained age. 3. The pessimistic plan of life insurance popular 
with those who do not expect to die of old age and want cheap 
insurance. 4. Also known as step-ladder insurance, because the 
higher you get the shakier it gets, and when you reach the top 
you are almost certain to fall off and make trouble for your fam- 
ily. 5. It attracts some people because they are solicitous as to 
the future, and the cheap premiums of the early years are as far 
as they can see. To tell the truth, vendors of step-rate insurance 
do not attempt very seriously, either, to awaken their imagina- 
tion as to what proportions a step-rate premium may assume. A 
man who accepts step-rate plan insurance undertakes to balance 
on its point a pyramid which grows year by year. It is easy at 
first, but after a while it tips over and squashes him. 

Syn. Renewable Term, Natural Premium. 

"The insured man, on the step rate plan, 

Will find that he selected 
An uphill road and a growing load, 

Too late to be corrected." 
From Over the Chills, then the Poor House. I<ast Verse. 

Stip 'u lated Pre -'mi um, n. 1. A fixed or level rate of as- 
sessment which continues so until increasing mortality necessi- 
tates an advance. 2. One of the great drawbacks to assessment- 
ism has always been the uncertainty of cost. The anxiety which 
naturally resulted among members as to whether the next pay- 
ment was to be more or less than the one just passed became at 
last a serious menace to the welfare of many of these institu- 
tions. The nerves of the whole membership became unstrung, 
and this threatened to result in an increased mortality, which 
would so decimate the ranks that the influx of "new blood" could 
never be provided for in sufficient volume to keep the system from 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



a complete collapse. Something had to be done. At this critical 
moment there arose a genius by the name of Stipulated with a 
plan of salvation. He proposed the scheme which hears his 
name. In accordance with his directions, the guiding mentors 
of an assessment association would choose a fixed rate to be 
charged as long as it would pay the claims. By selecting a figure 
slightly higher than the average for a certain period of time they 
would be able to get a little more than they would need some 
years, which could be used to fill in the gaps that occurred in those 
years where the claims exceeded collections. When, through ad- 
vancing mortality, it was found that the gaps began to occur too 
often to be patched up, then they would guess the rate up to an- 
other level, where it would run along for some time until another 
boost became necessary. Mr. Stipulated's theory was that an oc- 
casional shock is not so wearing upon the human system as is the 
steady downpull of a continuous worry. His system is still in 
operation. 

Stock Note, n. 1. A personal note given in lieu, of cash 
for stock in an insurance company. 2. A doubtful asset. 3. Some 
prominent men have been persuaded to accept stock in this way, 
giving their notes "merely as a matter of form," under the im- 
pression that they were running no risk and were assisting the 
company through their connection with it. As to the latter im- 
pression they were correct, for names do count, no matter how 
easy a mark their possessors may really be, when it comes to a 
show-down, but as to the former impression, they often discover 
that instead of dividends from profits they are called upon by a 
receiver to cash their little "matter of form" at its face figure, 
however uncomfortable such a performance may be. 4. Stock 
notes are often resorted to in the formation of a company, but the 
sooner they are converted into cash the better will it be for the 
experience of the company. 

Straight Can^vas, n. 1. A house-to-house canvass. 2. 
Up one side of the street and down the other. 3. This is one of 
the most prolific stunts (drama) of an industrial agent. An 
agent, without any debit, without any acquaintances, without any 
assets but determination and a friendly smile, by means of 

— 180- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

straight canvass work can build himself a debit, win friends and 
get at least board and lodging on Easy street. Of course, he can 
not hope to own a house of his own on that thoroughfare until he 
is a superintendent and has nothing to do but fill allotments. 
See Canvass. 

Street, n. See "The Street." 

5ub-A ^ gent n. An agent of an agent. 



Sub ro ga ' tion,-sub row ga' shun, n. [L. subrogo, to pass it 
along.] 1. A profitable habit indulged in by fire insurance com- 
panies, through which, owing to circumstances surrounding a 
fire, another is made to pay the loss. 2. Risks along railroad 
tracks are especially desirable, since fires in such property are 
usually attributable to the negligence of the transportation trusts, 
and almost any jury with a proper percentage of rural representa- 
tion in its personnel will manifest real relish in the privilege of 
relieving the insurance companies of the burden of the losses at 
the expense of the railroad. This is not because they love the 
one corporation the more, but because they love the other the less. 
This discrimination has its foundation, of course, in the never- 
ending controversy which is being carried on between the farm- 
ers and the transportation claim agents as to how a live, scrub, 
cross-breed runt can make a registered Poland-China hog corpse 
at the sudden instigation of some "limited." 3. Subrogation is 
one of the earliest achievements of the human race. It appeared 
in a well-developed case in the Garden of Eden, where the serpent 
was subrogated to a portion of the punishment for fruit stealing. 
[64 C. R., Appleate Division, Spring Term, Paradise. Vol. I 
(page number torn off).] 

" If by subrogation we could pay all claims 

A gentle horse laugh would we give the flames. 
Then not the how much but the whom— 
'Tw«uld be a game of naming names." 

—From Insurance KhayyaiM. V7. 



Sub-Stand ^ ard, adj. See Impaired Liyes. 

-181- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Supplies', n. (As used in insurance phraseology always 
plural.) [L. sul), up, and pleo, to fill.] 1. The blank policies, daily 
reports, calendars, blotters and all printed forms and other mat- 
ter furnished the agent by an insurance company. 2. Poetically 
speaking, the agent's kit of tools. 3. Most agents appreciate the 
significance of blank policies and take good care of them; but in 
a few offices the blotters and calendars, especially if the latter are 
particularly scrumptious, are kept in the safe while the policies 
and forms are smeared about on the counter promiscuously in a 
help-yourself style which could easilj?^ be taken advantage of. 
The companies are not giving such agents gold medals— not just 
now. 4. The term, "lifting an agency," occasionally observed, 
means really the lifting only of the supplies, or making a change. 
It is often a painful operation and is hardly an occasion for the 
interchange of loving cups. It is somewhat acrimoniously moot- 
ed as to just how much goes with the supplies under such circum- 
stances. Some companies claim that the waste-basket, the beauti- 
ful Persian rug and several pages of the register should accom- 
pany the supplies to their new location. Agents genera,lly think 
differently. This opens a corridor of thought which we hesitate 
to enter further. 

See Literature, Blanks, Policy, etc. 

"In lifting weights and dumb-bells great 

The Special took the prize ; 
But the hardest lift he had to lift 

Was lifting his supplies.^' 

—From " Underwriting Classics," Page 6363. 

Sur ' plus, n. [LL. superplus, to the good.] 1. The excess 
over liabilities. 2. Tech. Velvet. 3. The surplus of an insurance 
company is the reservoir which is held ready to minister to a 
rapidly growing reinsurance reserve or unearned premium ac- 
count. It is the wall which stands between solvency and an im- 
paired capital. 4. Surplus adds dignity and inspires confidence 
in proportion to its magnitude. It also sometimes attracts crit- 
icism from a certain class of individuals who are irritated by long 
strings of figures, when preceded by a dollar sign, and who ob- 
serve in surpluses only so much blood money extracted from an 
ever-suffering public by means of the "Great Heartless Triple 
Action Insurance Trust Hoi Poloi Lemon Squeezer;" (Incorpo- 

— 182— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



rated) also (Limited). This is an erroneous and badly warped 
view of the real status quo (Latin), for would these agitators but 
investigate and consider, they must realize that surpluses are 
public safeguards, forestalling the destruction of insurance insti- 
tutions by sudden and unexpected calamities, such as conflagra- 
tions or epidemics, which would impair the natural reserves based 
on expectancy most hopelessly, if they had not some resources 
to fail back upon. 

S. to policyholders, the surplus including capital stock Net 
S., the surplus after deducting capital stock. 

Syn. Excess Security. 

Sur ' plus Line, n. [Super, over, and plus, more.] 1. That 
portion of the insurance of a large line which remains to be un- 
derwritten after ail authorized companies have loaded up to their 
limits. 2. An insurance white elephant. 3. It is in these lines 
that wild-cats and irresponsibles are permitted to gamble with- 
out restriction. Proprietors of plants which come under this class 
buy insurance by the cord, taking the bad with the good, arguing 
that, in case of a fire, they will be able to secure something, at 
least, from the free-booters by a compromise. 4. Surplus-lines 
usually make the fires that are played upon the front pages of 
newspapers with scare-head type. The special agents read the 
lists of companies, not to see if they are on, but for how much. 
5. A company is generally compelled to write insurance on sur- 
plus-lines whether it w^ants to or not in order to keep solid with 
its local agent. 

Syn., Target-Risk. 

Sur ren ' der, v. t. [0. P. surrendre, to quit.] 1. To give 
up, as to surrender an insurance policy. 2. To drop. 3. A volun- 
tary discontinuance of life insurance contracts on the part of the 
policyholder. 4. The modern insurance policy contract generally 
provides that, if surrendered after a certain number of months 
or years, as the case might be, a certain cash payment will be 
made, called by courtesy the "surrender value." The amount 
named is not of sufficient magnitude to create an epidemic of sur- 
renders. It is not intended to act as a discouragement for those 
who aspire to become finally approved claims according to the 

-183 — 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



natural order of things and the inevitable dissolution of the hu- 
man body. The surrender value feature is the natural outcome 
of competition, though it has been accelerated in some States 
by special legislation. Before its advent a lapse prior to the ma- 
turity of the policy meant an abandonment of all its benefits. 5. 
The surrender value is given either in paid-up insurance or cash, 
or a combination of both, as the tastes or needs of the withdraw- 
ing one may dictate. 
Compare Lapse. 

Sur ^ vey , n. See Inspection. 

Sur vey ^ ing A ' gent, n. An agent who secures and exam- 
ines risks, but does not sign policies. 



Take Up, v. t. [From take and wp.] 1. To discontinue; to 
put an end to. 2. It is sometimes necessary with fire insurance 
companies to get off of certain risks, which, for various reasons, 
may be regarded with suspicion at the home office, and the agent 
is then notified to take up the policy, which, of course, he gladly 
does, deducting from his cash drawer the return commission. 
Again, the company may indulge in a wholesale taking up of pol- 
icies in a locality where some thrifty agent has been reporting 
planing mills and junk shops as dwellings and sprinklered gravel 
pits, pocketing the perceptible difference in rate for his own de- 
lectation and joy. Again, companies may learn that through 
some malevolence of fate their experience on a certain class of 
risks has approached the shady side of 100 per cent, as to losses, 
and, in consequence, an order goes forth for the wholesale taking 
up of policies on that particular style of ash piles. Also, policies 
of one company are taken up by some agents to be replaced by 
others, merely as a matter of business, so to speak. 4. To lift, as 
to take up supplies. One of the 3,631 duties of a special agent is 
to lift or take up the supplies of his company from one agency and 
place them in another. This operation is usually attended by an 
atmosphere of coolness, even in the hey day of the summertime. 
[See Special Agent.] 

—184- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Tar ' get Risk, tar' get risque, n. [Idiom, fire insurance.] 
1. A risk or line of such proportions that all authorized compa- 
nies carrying lines to their authorized limit are not able to fur- 
nish full indemnity. 2. A surplus line. 3. The first question that 
a new company in a strange land must face is how much it wants 
on all the target risks in sight. The more it wants, the better will 
be its reception and the more it will be made to feel at home and 
the more certain it will be to have a hot old time. It does not 
take a very experienced insurance marksman to hit a target risk 
right in the bullseye, and, vice versa, it does not take a very 
clever target risk to hit a company for a 70 per cent. loss. 4. Tar- 
get risks are also useful to a community as a source of enter- 
tainment and gape-seed (Ceres Bot. Chap. XXII) for the benefit 
of sight-seeing visitors. Of course, this is not so much the fact that 
these lines are such insatiable insurance propositions as it is be- 
cause of their great area or altitude. 5. Target risks and the at- 
tendant annoyance and worry because of the inability to secure 
sufficient insurance are among the penalties of wealth. 

See Surplus Line. 

Tar ' iff, n. [Fr. tari^, Sp. tar if a. From Ar. ta' rif from 
'arafa, know.] 1. An approved schedule of premium rates. 2. A 
system of rates applicable to a given territory or to a specified 
classification. 3. Tariffs are prepared by the insurance compa- 
nies for those States where anti-compact laws do not prevent joint 
action. Where such relationships are classed with house-break 
ing, horse-stealing and highway robbery, private individuals 
open tariff shops, where the companies can buy rates ready made. 
About the only difference it makes to the companies as to which 
method is followed is that the latter is more expensive for the 
insuring public. 

See Rate. 

Tar ' iff Rate, n. 1. A rate which is the genuine product 
of a real tariff. 2. A fragile piece of bric-a-brac which is some- 
times more or less damaged before it is actually applied as de- 
signed. 

Tax, n. [L. ^ango, to touch (notice the grim humor of this).] 
1. A tribute. 2. A contribution (inspired) to the support of politi- 

-185- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



clans and other State or municipal institutions. 3. [Rare,] Price 
of franchise privileges. 4. Owing to the human trait which makes 
it preferable sometimes not to let the right hand know what the 
left hana is about, it is a popular procedure with most lawmaking 
bodies to let the public pay a part of its taxes indirectl)'- through 
insurance companies. As insurance companies do not pose as gen- 
eral tax collectors, but prefer to limit their efforts to the fire tax, 
the mortality tax or physical calamity taxes of various kinds, 
they sometimes kick, to express it poetically, against collecting 
and handing over a part of the taxes for the support of public 
officials, building and printing contracts and the charitable main- 
tenance of political bosses and such. Still, the idea catches the 
public fancy, and it is a pleasure to know that insurance corpora- 
tions are turning over from 7 to 10 per cent, of their income in 
taxes; so the companies find it useless to argue, but load the 
premium with each new revenue law to meet the additional bur- 
den. 5. A certain percentage of tax is fair enough, but the ab- 
normal rate now paid by these institutions is simply a tax on 
thrift to the advantage of the thriftless. [Lucid's Logic] 

"And, ostrichlike, mau closely shuts his eyes ; ; 

He fears not what he does not see. 
He pays his tax in premiums of a size 

Two times as great as they should be." 

—From The Wisdom of Ignorance. Third Thought. 

Ten ^ ant, n. [L. teneo, to freeze to.] 1. One who or that 
which occupies a dwelling or building. 2. That without which a 
property is said to be vacant. 3. Tenants have considerable bear- 
ing upon insurance, since occupied property is ordinarily consid- 
ered more desirable as a risk for an insurance company than that 
which is unoccupied. Not always, however, for some persons are 
notoriously so unfortunate that fires are as common with them 
as measles in an orphan asylum. Such are said to be afflicted 
with a moral hazard, or pyromentes moralis hazardibus, as it is 
commonly known to medical science. 

Syn. Occupant. 

See Occupancy, Vacancy et al. 

Term In sur '' ance, n. 1. Life insurance which is payable 
only in event of death within a specified term or number of 

—186— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



years. If the holder of such a policy survives the period, the 
policy expires, but in some cases is made renewable at an ad- 
vanced rate. Because of its limited scope it is cheaper while it 
lasts than an ordinary life policy, but not enough so to make it 
attractive to a healthy, optimistic individual who aspires to die 
of old age. 2. Term insurance makes a good temporary provision 
to tide a man over some period of financial adventure or busi- 
ness hazard, but for straight, full-weight and satisfactory protec- 
tion for a family it is not to be recommended. 

'■"Term insurance, if continued, becomes a heavier burden with adranciag 
years and diminishing strength for burden bearing." 

—From The Pathos of Mistakes. Chap. 6 

**The Pub'lic" n. (generally plural and always singular.) 1. 
That from which premium income is derived. 2. That which in- 
sures. 3. That fickle, destiny-controlling aggregation of human 
atoms which recognizes insurance as a necessity, but fondly im- 
agines that it is always paying two prices for every dollar's worth 
it buys. Through its lawmaking systems it has the power to 
build up or break down financial institutions, which it employs 
with its varying fancies. 4. It is gullible and easily swayed by 
eloquence, impulse or cupidity. 5. It is quick to undertake indi- 
rect methods to correct errors which would yield quickly to direct 
treatment. 6. But, bless its old heart, it carries in America alone 
over $9,000,000,000 of life insurance, billions of dollars of fire in- 
surance, and billions more of accident, liability and all the other 
kinds of insurance, and so has a right to take an interest in the 
conduct of the companies which handle this great trust, even if, 
at times, in its efforts to put in a meddling finger, it makes most 
clumsy mistakes. Since it pays for the mistakes as well as the 
successes, where's the harm? 

Refer to Inimical Legislation, Legislator and the State insur- 
ance reports. 

" If Th^ Public wants to foot the bill 
'Tis well; obey The Public's will." 
-From HamleVs Address to the Roman Senate. Act X, Sc. 8. 

"The street," n. [Colloq.] 1. That particular locality in a 
town where most of the insurance offices are congregated. 2. 
Through a strong natural love for one another insurance agents 

—187— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



like to have their offices as near together as possible. It also 
saves steps in effecting the interchange of business. 3. No stran- 
ger in a city can fail to know that he has arrived on "the street" 
if his aimless wanderings chance to bring him into that locality. 
There is one thing that an agent is not ashamed of (excessively 
not), and that is his business. The first thing that he considers 
in selecting an office is whether there is room on the front of the 
building for a sign and whether the windows will afford good 
space for display of gilt and gold. His first move after selecting 
an office is to figure on the tallest letters that can be used to spell 
the word "insurance," and then he gives the order for the sign. 
As this is a part of the business, the stranger need not be uncer- 
tain as to his whereabouts when he strikes "the street." It also 
explains why sign makers all get rich in insurance centers. 

"He doesn't look as if he held the largest lines upon his books. He has the 
income of a prince ? You'd never dream it from his looks. But so 'tis said upon 
the street.''— Prom Disguised Prosperity. Canto III. 

Ton ' tine, ton' teen, adj. (Some so-called lexicographers 
place the accent on the latter syllable. It looks more symmetri- 
cal on the first.) [After an Italian named Tonti.] 1. In life in- 
surance, a tontine policy is one in which the dividend accumu- 
lations are not distributed until the end of a certain period known 
as the tontine period, and then only among the survivors. Nat- 
urally such a provision leads the holder of a tontine policy to 
read the death notices with solicitude, and the payment of that 
last obligation is robbed of much of its shadow (that is, when it 
is paid by the other fellow). 2. The idea is said to have originated 
in the brain of Lorenzo Tonti, a Neapolitan banker, who had for 
some time been using said brain night and day to think up some 
scheme to raise sufficient funds to reupholster the local throne 
and to buy a new rug for the dining room of the palace. Lory 
was much discouraged at first, and it was only after consulting 
the oracle at Monte Carlo that he was at last rewarded by having 
the scheme germinate in his brain. By his application of it a lot 
of Neapolitan capitalists were persuaded to put up like sums in 
Mr. Tonti's bank. This he used for the upholstering and the rug. 
A yearly income was paid to the members of this association, 
which, as death rudely decimated its ranks, was divided among 
the surviving members. Of course, as the number grew less, the 

—188— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



surviving individuals received proportionately more, and the gen- 
uine regret with which the last survivor finally let go of this good 
thing can well be imagined. After this coup Mr. Tonti was al- 
ways referred to with much respect as the J. Pierpont Morgan 
of the seventeenth century. 3. Tontine, semi-tontine and tontine 
combinations in life insurance policies have been sold with vary- 
ing popularity. Tontine periods are generally made for five, ten, 
fifteen or twenty years. 

See Deferred Dividend. 

Torna^do, n. [Sp. tornado, return.] 1. A severe wind- 
storm having a whirling motion and funnel shape and covering a 
comparatively narrow path. 2. A "twister." [Colloq. Kans.] 3. 
A tornado usually wears the wide end of the funnel up, while it 
lashes the small end of its tail-like extremity about on the earth 
In playful disregard for consequences. It brushes fences, build- 
ings, trees and leading citizens from one county into the next 
with the same eclat that a cow sweeps the flies from her back 
into the milkpail with her tail, and then twines the moist ap- 
pendage lovingly about the sun-burned neck of the milker (!!**). 
4. They are most common (tornadoes) from April to July, and 
are used to furnish items of interest for the newspapers during 
vacation months. 5. Insurance companies are endeavoring, in 
their modest way, to relieve the public of the embarrassment 
which generally results from the visit of a tornado by buying up 
the general chaos at so much per thousand, payable in advance. 
Any one contemplating entertaining a robust tornado during the 
summer will do well to call upon the nearest insurance agent. 
If your agent is out, address his home office for a sample policy. 



Tor na ' do In sur^ance, n. An agreement by contract to 
indemnify for loss from tornadoes or windstorms. See above. 



To'tal Loss, n. [Total: Compounded from two words — 
tote, a Southern U. S. idiom meaning "to carry" and the collective 
noun all. Loss: A. S. los.l 1. A loss that takes the full fac^ 
of a fire insurance policy in pajmaent. 2. The kind of loss that 
casts a gloom over the home office like a London fog. Of course, 

—189— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



with the older and more experienced companies, the eclipse is 
but momentary, for even calamities become commonplace upon 
constant repetition; but in the younger institutions the report of 
a total loss is liable to cause a panic. 3. Two or three total losses, 
judiciously administered, have been known to extinguish the en- 
tire nine lives of a wild-cat. 4. The only thing that can be said 
in favor of a total loss is its simplicity of settlement. 5. A total 
insurance loss is not necessarily a total property loss; for this 
reason it is to the advantage of insurance companies if the prop- 
erty is pretty well insured. 5. The term is not commonly used in 
reference to life insurance policies, probably because when such 
become claims they are usually total. 

•* As he drew so much per diem, 

Adjuster Jones was cross 
For what he thought a two weeks' job 
Was but a total loss." 

—From ''■Insurance Classics." Page 2436. 

Trust, n. See Insurance Trust. 

Twist, V. t. 1. To proselyte. 2. To persuade a policyholder 
to lapse or discontinue his policy in one company and take one in 
another. 

Twist ^ er, twist' er, n. 1. A species of life insurance agent 
which takes its name from its habit of twisting a policyholder 
from one company to another. The operation is said to be usu- 
ally harmful to the policyholder, but the twister finds delight in 
it because of the financial benefit which he secures thereby. 2. 
The species is quite common in America, nesting from the Gulf of 
Mexico to Hudson Bay. It is not to be distinguished from the 
common type of life insurance agent by any peculiar marking 
of its apparel, but wears the regulation garb of civilization and 
the same number of diamonds usually exposed on the person of 
life insurance agents. 3. Some claim that the name is derived 
from the resemblance of its subtle traits of character to those of 
the wily serpent, but a careful investigation of the Talmud and 
the Handy Guide shows this to be erroneous. 

"Where others have sown with toll and care, 
The twister reaps a harvest fair."— Fohi, Canto X. 

—190— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



u 



Um'pire, n. [L. non, not, and par, equal.] 1. Referee. 2. 
The third party in an appraisal, selected by the two appraisers 
who were appointed by the insurance company and the assured, 
respectively. 3. The umpire, to be ideal, must be impartial, not 
loving the one the more nor the other the less. Because of the 
scarcity of proper material it is sometimes very difl5cult to select 
an umpire. He must not only be above reproach, but approach 
also. Insurance men and the public often turn back the pages 
of memory regretfully to the picture of King Solomon and think 
what an acceptable umpire he would have made. With his repu- 
tation for impartiality and level-headedness, he could have easily 
earned twenty-five dollars a day and expenses, had he lived and 
gone into the umpire business. But life became distasteful to 
him, and it is doubtful whether, even had he known what oppor- 
tunities would be open to him in this line in the twentieth cen- 
tury, he could have been persuaded to wait and accept them. 4. 
Umpire also refers to the czar of the diamond, in whose hands 
is the destiny of the favorite baseball team. This individual 
shares, with the compact manager, the ardent abuse and dissent 
of the local insurance fans (abbreviation of fanatics) upon his 
rulings which are adverse to their conception of fitness. 

Syn. Referee. 

Un auth ' or ized, adj. Not according to law. 
See Underground. 

Un ^ der ground, a. 1. Unauthorized. 2. Wildcat. S. Many 
companies, unworthy of patronage, secure business by under- 
ground methods. Being wildcat, they prefer to prowl about in 
the dark. Their assets are of such a nature that they will not 
stand light, and before the least ray of publicity they fade away, 
not leaving even a grease spot. 4. The safest underground meth- 
od of operation is through the mails. Were such companies de- 
nied this co-operation from the government, they would follow 
lotteries to the land of revolutions, earthquakes and other polit- 
ical and seismic phenomena. 5. People buy underground insur- 
ance with the same avidity that they snap at smuggled cigars and 

—191— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



rugs, and when they find that their policy is but an April first 
imitation of the real thing, as their cigars and rugs prove to be the 
products of Bowery sweat shops, they have no one to find fault 
with but themselves. These underground passages are found to 
be beautifully lubricated for the transmission of premiums, but 
it is about as hard to pull a loss settlement out of one as it is for 
a Republican politician to pull an easy job out of a Democratic 
administration. As far as working both ways is concerned, under- 
ground insurance is a mighty poor rule. 

Syn. Unauthorized. 

See Wildcat, 

*' Be not surprised, with feelings hurt, 
If with an undergrounder you should flirt, 
For since, by nature, he is underground. 
He only does when he can do you dirt." —Anon. 



Un ^ der write, v. t. 1. To subscribe to an insurance con- 
tract. 2. To write insurance. 
Compare Assure, Insure. 

Un ' der writ er, n. 1. One who underwrites or insures. 2. 
One who shares or assumes another's risk — for a consideration. 
3. The term originated in Mr. Lloyd's saloon in London over a 
century ago. Some of the sports who loafed about the place be- 
came tired of seven-up and California Jack and invented the more 
exciting game of underwriting. It was so-called because the play- 
ers signed (or wrote under) contracts to indemnify owners of ves- 
sels in case of loss or damage during a projected voyage, placing 
opposite their names the amounts they were willing to stake. The 
ship-owners, in turn, made contributions to the pool. The game 
proved very fascinating and became quite popular. Though his- 
tory negligently fails to state, yet we are free to conjecture, that 
many progressive underwriting clubs were organized in London 
and thrived until they attracted adverse criticism from the Puri- 
tan clergy. From insuring only marine risks it has branched out 
into fire, life and other lines and from a coffee-house pastime it 
has developed into the business necessity of the present day. The 
corporations thus engaged are now known as underwriters. 4. 
An underwriter is one who distributes the effect of a calamity. 5. 

—192— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



One who collects and disburses the tax on human woe or misfor- 
tune. 6. The direct lineal descendant of the command "Bear ye 
one another's burdens." 

See Lloyd's Underwriters. 



Und ' der writ ' ing Profit, n. 1. The net profit made by an 
insurance company Irom its underwriting, 2. An uncertain, 
evanescent something which all managers of insurance companies 
are continually trying to grasp. Sometimes the underwriting 
profit for the year is visible to the naked eye, while again it may 
be so conspicuously absent that the place in which it is not 
sticks a hole down into the surplus that looks as dismal as a Lon- 
don fog. 3. The legitimate way to figure the underwriting profit 
is to take the premium and subtract from it the losses and then 
the expenses, allowing, of course, suflBcient time to elapse to per- 
mit the reserve to work off. The remainder, if there is any, is 
the underwriting profit. The distinguishing trait of a wildcat 
company is its method of handling this calculation. As in the 
former case, the premium is taken, but the first subtraction to 
which it is subjected is the underwriting profit. A generous 
proportion is taken off for this purpose, thus making sure of it. 
Then a goodly percentage is removed for expense, after which de- 
ductions, if anything happens to be left of the premium, it is used 
in compromising such losses as become so persistent that some- 
thing has to be done to avoid the necessity of seeking new quar- 
ters and a new name. 



Un '' earned Pre '' mi um, un' ernd pre' mi um, n. 1. That por- 
tion of a premium which is necessary to carry a policy to termi- 
nation or to the next premium payment if the risk were rei9sured. 
As soon as a policy is written it must be secured by a reserve or 
an unearned premium, which time reduces. 2. In companies 
which have a well-selected business the unearned premium ac- 
count represents a certain amount of excess, which, in case of a 
sale of the business, would go to surplus. Desirable business is 
in demand at less than unearned premium rates. That may be 
rate cutting on a large scale, but, like other possibly questionable 
transactions on a grand scale, it is not considered obnoxious. 

I. D.-13 —198— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

Un ^ ex posed, un' ex pozed, p. p. Not within the influence of 
•exposures. [Which see.] 

Un i latter al, adj. 1. One-sided. 2. Of insurance applica- 
tion, in that a policy, through some misunderstanding or intent, 
is sometimes so written that the company is at no time liable in 
case of a loss. This is effected by the conditions of the policy 
and the circumstances of the individual case. Such contracts 
would be very profitable to insurance companies but for the habit 
of courts to demand the return of all premiums paid thereon. 

Un oc ' cu pied, p. p. See Vacant. 



Va ' can cy, n. [L. vaco, to be empty.] 1. State of unoccu- 
pancy of a risk. 2. Nothing doing. 3. Fire underwriters recog- 
nize the vacancy of a piece of property as an increase in the 
hazard and under certain conditions require the assured to pro- 
cure a vacancy permit. In case a tenant signifies his intention to 
move and the company refuses to grant a vacancy permit assured 
had best retain tenant by fair means or fowl (this latter applies 
to boarding houses only). Some landlords nail up all exits when 
verbal persuasion proves ineffectual and thus retain tenants in- 
definitely. Another popular way is to notify the police that there 
is a case of smallpox in the house and the city immediately estab- 
lishes a quarantine, thus saving the assured expense and elimi- 
nating the necessity of a vacancy permit. The great drawback to 
this plan is the difficulty in collecting the rent. 4. A house that 
has been afflicted with vacancy long enough will not need any 
vacancy permit. It will not even need any insurance. The hu- 
man animal is of such an anticipatory disposition that certain 
specimens of the breed will take portions of vacant houses, pre- 
sumably as mementoes or relics of possible future value because 
it was once or yet might be the home of a poet or president. Their 
first choice seems to be the plumbing; then the doors, blinds, 
front porch, etc., bit by bit are dissipated until there is nothing 
left but the cellar, the cistern and the mortgage. 

See Vacancy Permit; Tenant; and notify the police. 

—194- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Va^can cy Per ^ mit, n. Special concession granted by the 
company to continue the insurance on a property while vacant for 
a specified time. 

Va ' cant, va kant, adj. 1. To let. 2. Unoccupied. 3. Unten- 
anted. 4. Empty. 5. Knowing the eagerness of sneak thieves to 
unplumb modern houses, it seems strange that rental agents call 
the attention of these wreckers to the unprotected condition of the 
property by applying externally and prominently as possible 
cards announcing the fact. 

Syn. Unoccupied. 

See Vacancy. 

Val u a ' tion, val u a' shun, n. The act of valuing Insur- 
ance policies. 

Val ' ue, V. t. [L. vales, be strong.] 1. To determine the re- 
serve on a policy. 2. This work is generally performed by an 
actuary, though the method of valuing a policy may be mastered 
and operated by a mind less mathematical. To value a policy one 
must take into consideration the age at which it was taken out, 
the interest rate adopted by the company, the premium shorn of 
its expense loading and any other ornaments, the number of 
years the policy has run, the nature of the contract. One good 
at considering and knowing the combination, with a little patience 
and some mental struggle will be able to dig up the right answer 
in the course of the afternoon. But the agent who spends his time 
with a prospect in attempting to show him how to value a policy 
year by year or how to load a premium to get its share of new 
business will not be likely to persuade his client to take a policy 
to practice on. It is well enough for an agent to know how to 
value a policy if he wants to, but such knowledge seldom proves 
of value as a canvassing asset. 

" He showed him how to value an 
Endowment at age fifty ; 
By English and American, 
And eke in fact by every plan, 
With 3 per cent, until the man," 
Etc., etc. 

—From Stick to Your Text. Opening of Canto VI. 
—195— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



Val ' ue, n. The equivalent of a policy, as cash value, paid-up 
insurance value, etc. 
See Valuation. 

Val ' ued-Pol ' i cy Law, val' yud-pol' i sy law, n. [Colloq. 
U. S.] 1. A measure passed in some States to compel fire insur- 
ance companies to wager specified amounts that certain risks will 
not burn in a given time, instead of permitting them to carry on a 
legitimate business of indemnifying property-owners for fire 
losses actually insurred. 2. A premium on incendiarism. 3. A 
burden to honest citizens and a license to criminals. 4. One of 
those instances where thick-skulled law-makers, in attempting 
to soak it to corporations, soak it to their constituents instead. 
5. One of the most striking arguments that law-makers should at 
least be threatened with intelligence — that one of the qualifica- 
tions for State legislators should be brains. Like all other inim- 
ical legislation valued-policy laws cause increases in rates. 

See Inimical Legislation. 



W 



Wa'ger Pol''i cy, wa'ger por i si, n. 1. A gambling con- 
tract of insurance. 2. In life insurance a policy on the life of one 
person for the benefit of another who has no insurable interest in 
the life of the insured. 3. This style of gambling is prohibited in 
America, though still popular and permissible in England and 
Europe. The American has not yet felt the necessity for this 
style of excitement, as yet being fully occupied with horse rac- 
ing, prize fighting, draw poker and politics. When these lose 
their charm possibly wager insurance will be introduced. 4. 
Wager policies are embarrassing to the person on whom they 
are written, for he feels with conflicting emotions that his tenac- 
ity to life is proving a bitter disappointment to his unknown 
beneficiaries, while he also realizes that if he permits the flame 
of life to flicker out he will bankrupt the companies or individ- 
uals who had sufficient confidence in his ability to thwart death 
to put up their money on it. It is not strange that all prominent 
men, in countries where wager policies are in vogue, are cross- 

—196— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

eyed. That is to say, it wouldn't be strange if they were cross- 
eyed. 

See Beneficiary. 

Waiv'er, wav' er, n. [Ice veifa, wave.] 1. The relinquish- 
ment of a right, privilege or condition in the process of an adjust- 
ment of a loss or in the continuance of a policy in force. 2. A 
waiver may be voluntary or involuntary. The company may 
agree to waive certain conditions or it may waive its rights unin- 
tentionally by acts which imply a purpose not to claim said rights. 
To avoid such misunderstandings, fire insurance companies re- 
quire claimants to sign waiver agreements, by which they con- 
sent to the company's making its investigations of the loss with- 
out such action being taken as an acknowledgment of liability. 
3. This waiver business is of considerable importance to the 
agent as well, for a passing remark of his at the time of the de- 
livery of the policy or upon the inquiry of the insured, which may 
seem trivial to him as he makes it, may result in a waiver that 
will cause the company to pay a loss for which it would not other- 
wise be liable. "Oh, that'll be all right," warbled into the receiver 
of a telephone, has been known to cost companies thousands of 
dollars. The best plan to adopt in answering inquiries of policy- 
holders is first to count ten and then answer. Some agents count 
twenty or fifty. Others use the adding machine. When one stops 
and thinks that, because of his answer, he may have to pay the 
loss personally, he is inclined to be discreet. 

See Agent, etc. 

"Six letters spell it, w-a-i-v-e-r, and it cost us one thousand dollars i>er letter." 
—From Other PeopWs Losses. Chap. 11. 



War^ranty, n. [0. F. warant, ppr. of warir, guard.] 1. 
Guaranty. 2. Assurance of the truth of a statement. 3. An- 
swers in an application for insurance are commonly made war- 
ranties and a part of the contract. Thus, if a man states in the 
application that he knows nothing, by actual personal experiment, 
of alcoholic liquors as a beverage, when in truth he has long been 
recognized as a human sponge for such forms of poison, or he 
may state that his knowledge of physicians and their methods is 
based entirely upon second-hand information, when he has suc- 

—197- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



cessfully performed the role of chief dish for a select few sur- 
geons at a little appendicitis party, and has swallowed a farm or 
two in the form of drugs, or where he states that his ancestral 
tree is remarkable for the spread of its branches, which have al- 
ways made a specialty of longevity and golden weddings, when a 
correct diagnosis of the facts reveals that for years it has raised 
nothing but twigs, which have died close to the ancestral trunk, 
or if other misapprehensions of the facts are embodied in his ap- 
plication and made warranties, it naturally follows that when he 
dies and these bits of fiction are exposed, his expectant heirs are 
apt to learn that he was just joking when he claimed to be in- 
sured. It may seem heartless that the innocent should suffer for 
the guilty in such a case, but the insurance companies can not 
afford to encourage this style of humor. The market is over- 
worked as it is. 

See Application, etc. 



Wa'ter Sup pBy', n. 1. That feature, or the lack of it, of a 
municipality which concerns the liquid discouragement of fires 
and is a matter of marked solicitude to fire underwriters. 2. Water- 
supplies are derived from various sources. The clouds represent 
the primal, the raw, th© natural idea; but a town depending en- 
tirely upon rainstorms and cloudbursts to check its conflagrations 
is not considered a member of the preferred class and its basis 
rate is usually as high as the reservoirs of its water system. The 
next step in advance is the town which depends upon wells and 
cisterns. The fluid, when expediency insists, is transferred to the 
flames by means of a bucket brigade. [See same.] Fires have 
often been put out in this manner. However, a town that depends 
upon wells for its water-supply is not necessarily well-protected. 
[Use sparingly.] The most approved source of water-supply is 
from an underground network of iron pipes, from which the water 
escapes with such exuberance that it will easily sprinkle a crowd 
half a square beyond the fire. Most new cities which are looking 
for a place upon which to locate endeavor to select ground the 
subsoil of which is permeated with these systems of pipes. A 
city's success as a city greatly depends on this question. All 
water systems are not equally satisfactory to fire underwriters 
and their pleasure or displeasure is generally manifested in the 

—198- 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



basis rate. 3. The water-supply of some towns, outside of Ken- 
tucky and Milwaukee, Is quite often used for drinking purposes as 
well. 

Well Hole, n. [Ins. Arch.] 1. A floor opening to admit 
light or provide access from one floor to another. 2. Well holes, 
as contemplated by the fire insurance schedule, though recognized 
as necessities, are not considered as "well," the name to the con- 
trary notwithstanding, but are penalized according to area and 
their protection or lack of protection by means of trap doors. 
As might be inferred, well holes afford as easy access for the dis- 
tribution of flames throughout a building as they do more desir- 
able elements. Architects are constantly engaged in a search for 
an ideal well hole, which will be in the nature of an exclusion act 
as to fire, but will be liberal in its behavior towards light and 
human beings. 

See Schedule. 

Wild = Cat ^, wild'-cat, n. [Zool. felis catus.l 1. A species 
of marauding insurance irresponsibles which prey upon the pub- 
lic. They thrive because of the common desire of the human ani- 
mal to obtain something for nothing, not realizing until too late 
that they are getting the reverse. 2. An insurance organization 
existing for revenue only. 3. Wild-cats breed in all parts of the 
country, but find the jungles of Chicago peculiarly favorable to 
their perpetuation. 4. Most of the States offer bounties for the 
scalps of wild-cats. 5. Wild-cats have rarely submitted to domes- 
tication. Animal tamers have often attempted the feat. Such 
tamers are more specifically known as "receivers." A receiver 
who has discovered the den of a wild-cat, upon entering the place, 
usually finds that the animal has escaped by the freight elevator 
or the mail-chute, leaving only a feather-duster, a spittoon and a 
bad smell. 

See Snide, Fake, Green-goods, Gold-brick and wire the State 
insurance commissioner. 

Wir ' Jng, n. 1. The electrical equipment of a building. 2. 
The nervous system of a risk. (Fig.) 3. Because wiring is com- 
monly out of sight and harmless enough, judging from appear- 

—199— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 



ances, when it first was introduced but little thought was given 
to its installation. The main object then was to see that the cur- 
rent did not have to make any very large jumps through the air 
to complete its circuit. Finally it became evident that, however 
insignificant wiring might appear to be, it showed a tendency to 
leak liquid heat and brimstone in a way that made loss ratios on 
electrically equipped buildings grow to alarming proportions. 
Careful study and much experiment and application has led to 
the present day system of wiring, which is subject to as many 
inflexible laws as were the Medes and Persians. Instead of in- 
difference, it now is favored with careful and frequent attention. 
This rise from a lowly, unappreciated place in the regard of its 
masters to one of the most important positions on the inspection 
slip should prove an inspiration to the most humble office boy, if 
he is charged with proper ambitions. 

Write, rite, v. t. 1. Contraction of underwrite. Which see. 



See Q. 



Year, yere, n. [A. S. gear, year.] 1. The period of time in 
which the four seasons make the circle. 2. The length of time 
that an annual premium will keep an insurance policy in force. 
3. The life of an ordinary calendar. 4. Twelve months. 5. One 
year is said to be as long as another, but the more a person has 
seen the shorter they seem. By the time a man gets to be thirty 
he notices that the months are contracting; at forty they begin 
to lay over a little at each end; at fifty there are only about ten 
months left in a year, and after sixty it begins to look like just 
one streak of January firsts. 6. The year in common use in Eng- 
lish speaking countries, and in many others less favored, is that 
invented by the Rev. Gregory XIII, who was successfully the 
Pope at Rome from 1572 to 1585. He was a man of strong char- 
acter and not easily discouraged, so when he saw that, through 

—200— 



INSURANCE DEFINITIONS 

no fault of his own, he had inherited the unlucky XIII, he de- 
termined to rise above it. This very circumstance opened the 
way for his most successful achievement. He got to thinking 
that, if he had been born slightly prior or after the date he se- 
lected, he might have been number XII or XIV. With this 
thought, he began to consider the calendar which was then in use 
and not giving general satisfaction. It had been invented by 
General Julius Caesar at one time during a lull in his rather 
strenuous career. Julius had always been literary in his tastes, 
and thought he would like to be the author of a calendar or an 
almanac that would be appreciated by posterity, but he had only 
made a rough draft of his calendar when the Eburones, or some 
other tribe, broke out of their reservation and he had to go and 
chase them back. From then until Brutus made the mistake of 
his life General Caesar was too busy to complete his calendar. 
However, it was used in its partially hatched state until Pope 
Gregory got to thinking it over. It didn't quite adjust itself to 
the song of the stars and the swing of the seasons, and every 
once in a while the 4th of July would occur about the kind of 
weather one would expect on Thanksgiving day. Naturally, this 
was disconcerting, to say the least. Altogether, the Julian cal- 
endar was as uncomfortable as a misfit set of false teeth. Rev. 
Gregory succeeded in straightening out the kinks and adjusting 
the awkward places, and the Gregorian calendar is still in use, 
without any signs of running down. Its author is to be congratu- 
lated. 

" The year is dying, dying. 
The agent trips lightly — 
Isn't he sprightly ? 
Yes, for he's trying, trying 
An allotment to make 
And a bonus to rake." 

—From Insurance Remnants. V 6. 



See X. 



-201- 



ajnv e 1903 



